Economic crisis poses huge problems for higher education

By BETTY GABRIEL WAKIA - original post on PNG Attitude

Betty Wakia

TIANJIN - Papua New Guinea’s economic problems hit pretty hard in 2017 and 2018 will be a tough year for families as prices have already increased on more than 900 household items already.

The rise in food prices has adversely affected the livelihood of socially vulnerable groups, especially for poorer people because their diets usually rely on items that are becoming more expensive such as rice, tinned fish, flour and cooking oil.

What also makes life worse for socially disadvantaged groups is the significant increase in fuel prices.

Every kina spent on increased prices for necessities is a kina that can’t be spent on educational and other services. So PNG is now confronted with an economic crisis which will have a dramatic effect on income, unemployment and lifestyle.

For households from lower income groups which have young children, education constitutes a significant part of consumption. Simply to survive, many families will be forced to pull their children out of school and send them to work.

And female students are more likely to drop out, mainly affecting rural areas where boys are typically given more opportunities than girls.

Difficult economic conditions have also had a large impact on higher education. The government should do away with the current policy and re-introduce the old system where it paid fees for students going to colleges and universities. There needs to be improvement in teachers’ salaries and the quality of teaching and learning.

The Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology owed institutions K7 million in outstanding government scholarship funds for 2017. This was one reason why the country’s leading universities like UPNG and Unitech tripled compulsory tuition fees.

Perhaps, at times like this, higher education institutions should be urged to generate their own revenue instead of relying solely on government.

Some colleges and universities have resorted to bank loans to support capital construction costs, resulting in high levels of debt. Such pressures make it difficult to focus on teaching and research thus compromising the quality of higher education. And it’s a vicious circle, low quality contributing to the high level of graduate unemployment.

Higher education is a major driving force for development in PNG, even though in recent years with the rapid increase in number of graduates, the job market has struggled to keep up with their job expectations.

The white-collar jobs just aren’t there.

They have a longer-term pay-off, but universities are a vital part of our economic infrastructure - a powerful vehicle of human development that helps engender economic, social and political stability.

The PNG government should realise that the development of human capital, spending on research and cultivating an entrepreneurial culture are not so much costs as investments in a better future.

To produce the range of services required to fulfill society’s needs, universities and government need to focus on methods to improve financing and accountability.

The 2018 academic year will be tough for parents and students. Those children of subsistence farmers and low wage earners will struggle to pay tuition fees.

Looks like they will attend secondary education and return to their villages while rich kids will get the benefit of colleges and universities now – and right through their future careers.

Go to link: https://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/01/economic-crisis-is-posing-great-problems-for-higher-education.html

Hey men - let’s make our streets & buses safe for women & girls

A ‘Youth Sanap Wantaim’ campaigner creating awareness of street harassment during Anti-Street Harassment Week

By BETTY GABRIEL WAKIA - posted on PNG Attitude

PORT MORESBY - It was busy Friday and I was amongst the people walking through the Ori Lavi building when a stranger whispered to me, “Hey, lush you, perfume stap olsem yu iet.’’

Before I could react he had disappeared into the crowd; frustratingly because it was third time in a week this had happened to me and I could have slapped the guy with force and give him a lesson to think about a thousand times before doing it to anyone else.

This is not a new or unusual incident for any Papua New Guinean girls in public places or who use public transport in our urban areas. It’s the kind of daily challenge to our safety that occurs whenever women and girls step out of their homes.

A stupid remark like “Hey stack one, nogat makmak,” being spat out on the street by a stranger is something many women and girls experience.

It may seem like just a bit of harmless fun but street harassment is really about power and control and I know from personal experience that it can easily turn to violence.

It’s upsetting to see women and girls being harassed by name calling, unwanted comments or touching when they pass a group of strangers on the street of Boroko or around Gordon’s market.

If young girls walk to a bus stop in their shorts, men will leer and start whistling, catcalling and making demands. Taxi drivers follow them around, hooting their car horns. Lewd comments are hurled from all angles.

Sometimes women just stand there looking stunned and thinking that these men must’ve come from a cave in the middle of the New Guinea jungle. Perhaps if someone walked along in a bikini and put on a show in front of these cavemen they would just back off and walk away.

We live in a world where every day I am reminded that women are a commodity because every day we are treated like a piece of public property.

Most women in PNG experience this form of harassment and they feel unsafe in public places and take steps to avoid harassment by varying their routines, changing the way they dress, refusing eye contact or even avoiding make-up.

Others travel in groups or are always accompanied by men while some even employ their own defence mechanisms such as walking with keys between their knuckles.

Street harassment is not trivial. Everyone has the right to feel comfortable and safe in public places. It is a human rights violation and a form of assault. Men get away with amongst other men because women are undervalued and disrespected in our society.

This is not something for men to think of as fun or a joke and they should know that harassment can cause emotional and psychological harm to women and girls.

Street harassment can have major effects especially for teenage girls.

At one stage of my life, I was around 12, this kind of behaviour led to poor self-esteem, depression and a fear of going to school or the shops. It’s not a simple, one moment experience. It can be a horribly drawn out affair.

Such experiences cause students to miss school and can affect learning and academic success. It is important for men to understand and to be educated on the psychological, physical and emotional effects of street harassment.

It is good to see that the organisation UN Women is recognising the effects of street harassment by carrying out an awareness program to prevent it.

If such organisations take bold steps to make public places safer, we women can too by being good bystanders and friends to strangers by helping out if they are being harassed.

Speak up, be smart, be safe and help bring an end to street harassment.

Go to link: https://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/04/hey-men-lets-make-our-streets-buses-safe-for-women-and-girls.html