My School Fees
My name is Pirika. I come from the Gulf province of Papua New
Guinea.
I am the 3rd of three children who were raised by two
hard-working and committed mothers. One is educated and employed while the
other is not, but both manage to put food on the table every night for as long
as I can remember.
I am currently doing a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, and
this is my second year. It is that time of the year where school fee invoices
get issued and transcripts are released. I went to get mine last week Friday at
the school and I noticed that my fees had increased from the price it was at
last year to about K13,000.00 (PGK). This is equally divided by two to accommodate
for the two semesters of the academic year. The fee for semester one is about
K6,500.00 (PGK) while the fee for semester two is the same. Sadness engulfed me
as I thought of my Mothers and how they would have to pay all that.
Knowing the amount required to be paid is one aspect of the
problem, the other is the timeframe in which you had to pay. It takes roughly
two months before the scheduled date for registration – the first week of March
– and 80% of this fee for semester one has to be paid prior to that. The same
goes for semester two.
If you think my situation with school fees is the worst, it
is not, because I do not live on campus. I am a day student. When you look at
the life of a boarding student, it is much, much worse. They have to pay up to
about K22,000.00 (PGK) in one year.
Money is a commodity of high scarcity in a country like
Papua New Guinea. With the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, nepotism,
and other related issues, we will suffer from poverty very soon. In this
third-world country, money amounting to K13,000.00 (PGK) is not easy to come by in
just two months.
The struggle is real.
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