Comments

Good blog Moses. Few points related to the blog: 1. Several times the government & DHREST said that to qualify for HELP, students need high GPA. High GPA is also required for TESAS. Because both schemes require high GPA, both HELP & TESAS benefits students with high GPA, not necessarily poor students. It’s a “he who has more, more will be given, and he who has less, even what he has will be take away from him” scheme. The requirements for high GPA, especially for HELP, is so that students can easily get employed and repay their loans. That’s according to secretary for DHREST. 2. The government said if students fail to repay their loans two years after graduation, their guarantees will repay. So the students willing to access loans first need to find a ‘wantok’ willing to repay the loan on their behalf if the student fails to find a job two years after graduation. How many wantoks would be willing to do that? Graduates who earn below a certain threshold (e.g. K600 per fortnight) will be exempted from repaying their loans until they exceed the threshold. Will the their wantoks pay for the loans whilst awaiting the graduate to exceed the threshold? The idea of guarantees is interesting. The reason why students are going for HELP in the first place is because their wantoks cannot help them now. Requiring the same wantoks to repay if the graduates fail to repay is a silly logic. 3. Marape is developing a habit of changing the goalposts. First he declared scrapping away free education from prep to secondary school level. Outcry, especially on social media led to a change in position. Now it’s subsidized education. Second, he announced that TESAS would be eliminated and replaced with HELP. Again, public outcry led to maintaining TESAS. We might see more changing of goalposts. I wrote a piece on HELP titled “Student loans, Chained Careers: The other perspective” for a blog. It was republished by the National Newspaper last Friday: https://academicnomad.home.blog/2020/01/10/student-loans-chained-careers-the-other-perspective/

Here it’s only the rumors that the aid budget is low. I think Helen Hughes has a different view on increasing the budget of aid in the Pacific islands. She had a bad impact on the Pacific. The Australian government is giving no sign on the labor. I have much more to say but will conclude my comment they are improving the quality submission to aid.

Great article and good on you Sonya for having the determination and you will be an inspiration to other young people. 😊

I am sorry to learn that the new scheme seems unlikely to succeed. This is unfortunate because PNG really does need to have very good university graduates. The country would benefit from providing higher education to talented individuals who are from remote areas and families with an inability to pay fees.

Thanks for this blog Moses. PNG may learn much from the Fijian experience. A Tertiary Education Loan Scheme (TELS), in addition to a scholarship for high-achievers pursuing studies towards qualifications in demand, has been in place in Fiji since 1977. Repayments are made through the tax system, and loan-recovery has been good. A lesson from the above is that graduates have to be employed to be in a position to repay their loans, and the tax system must deliver. Consequently, the onus is on the lender (i.e. the Government) to do the necessary homework before extending the loan (i.e. HELP).

Great article, Stephen. Round and round we go.

NID is a failed and wasteful project. It is just a simple task of reaching out, collection and registering all information in the database to produce those IDs and birth certificates, with favourable funding more than enough to complete the job. I personally think the Civil and Identity Registration office and all the officials are INCOMPETENT, that's why the are very corrupt, lazy and turn to nepotism. I believe the government should thoroughly investigate all the employees merits and records and instate all qualified, capable personnel who are flexible enough to identify and solve any problem and to accomplish any projects and programs. I'm sure there are a lot of quality and qualified Papua New Guineans and ethical persons who can do this work. On the other hand the complication of NID is real and I'm facing it right now. I did apply at Port Moresby and waited almost 11 months, but when I came to Goroka, there was nowhere I could follow up. All the contacts I got from Moresby are not working and even the NID office in Goroka is telling me to go back to the centre where I applied and this complicated everything because there is no other website or links where l could get information. NID project in Papua New Guinea is a failed and wasteful project.

Good post thanks Stephen. I have some other concerns -- the submission window has been over the Christmas/New Year period, which is always a busy time and now lots of us have had a shocker of a summer. I'm wondering -- why the rush? Is it going to influence the budget process, is that why there's the time pressure? What is the end goal? Also there's the question of other recent submissions to nowhere -- there's been nothing come out from the 2018 soft power review, for example, which could have had some useful content to inform this review if communicating value and impact is apparently an important component?

Internet speed is what really matters when one needs internet for a purpose. It has become evident that Telcos advertising slogan of "UNLIMITED" data promos are technically channelled in the backend through narrow bandwidth, resulting in very slow internet speed. Packets dropping, connection timeout etc in a slow connection without actually accomplishing the task intended on internet in a time, is an unsatisfying user experience. Internet speed is one tradeoff when assessing the cost.

Thanks for being in touch Daniel. The application process for these things can be very frustrating, as someone who has spent time unemployed myself I very much sympathise. Do you have any ideas on how the process could be improved? I feel like the root of the problem is Timor-Leste's economic and demographic situation. Something like 30,000 reach working age each year. Most of these people want paying jobs. This puts SEFOPE in a very difficult position when selecting people for programs like the PLS. There are just too many good candidates.

Hey Polly, thanks for sharing your experiences. It's interesting you feel like your treatment in the PLS is better than in the SWP. How so (oinsaa)? As far as I can see with the SWP there is a lot of variation from place to place. Many are very good. A few are not. There are supposed to be systems in place (tuir lolos) to ensure that everyone in the SWP gets the pay and conditions they are supposed to, but whether they always work is another matter. Sorti diak ho ita nia bisnis. Hau hein atu hasoru fali imi kalu hau kunjungi.

Hi Maun Mike Rose, we have glad if we will become the permanent residence! I am as ex- swp was comparing the Seasonal Worker Program with Pacific Labour Scheme was a better PLS program. The reason why? Pacific Labour Scheme is all facility and treatment according to Australian workplace laws, I am so pleased to be part of the Pacific Labour Scheme get new experience such as culture, rights and religion in the community we are living. Likewise, get enough money sends back home to support my families for schooling, in addition, doing a small business to contribute to the development of our country. Obrigado Maun, ba article ida nee.