Letters & Opinions

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Monday, February 15, 2010

OHE should take charge of selections

OHE was supposed to be the one in ensuring the education system at the tertiary level is its paramount responsibility to ensure every passing student gets educated properly but sadly that hasn't been the case to date.

Minister Ogio appeared on all media outlets to say that 29 tertiary institutions are responsible for the selection of students from Grade 12 using the former 1.6 and current 2.25 GPA as the yardstick while OHE only facilitates.

That's pathetic so to speak. No wonder the current selection system has let many top students end up becoming drug addicts and criminals on the streets and back in the villages.

How do I know that? Simple but OHE failed to see that when the GPA cut off point is 2.25 then regardless of who scored straight As or Bs, the representatives from various 29 institutions choose who they allow to continue regardless of who scores what grade so long as you pass the GPA.

Then that can be the safest mechanism for a selection committee to choose who he/she wants so long as you know them besides some lunch money under the table for them. So the poor students who got straight As misses out if he/she doesn't know anybody in the selection panel and allows only the system to get him/her selected. The very excuse the committee will use in the 2.25 GPA being the guide in the selection process.

As Dr William Tagis said on the media last week, they look at 2.25 cut off mark and are not bothered by the As or Bs. That enables wantokism and nepotism to thrive using that selection method.

The selection of the 29 different tertiary Institutions become very powerful and can easily do two things using the 2.25 GPA as the safe guard. 1, the selection committee of a particular institution can be bribed if you know them. 2, If a committee is from a particular place and if the students are known to them then can easily put them in the situation so long as they have 2.25 or near GPA.

When I was a student I had to bribe my way in even though my GPA requirement was above the cutoff point so if they deny that, it will haunt them for rest of their lives.

So you see, if you don't know anybody from the institution you applied, don't depend on the grades but work hard to pay some lunch money to the committee from the institution you applied for.

I want to urge minister Ogio to abolish the current selection system and direct OHE take full responsibility in the selection process by ensuring every top student get priority then followed by others.

Categorize them in order of top GPA cut off point of the GPA then divide them amongst the 29 institutions and ensure everyone is educated. Better still,  the top students should be the focal point of Government as they will be the top think tank for this country when we elders phase out.

If the current system of selection method remains, we will see more drug pushers and prostitutes on the street.
Why and who are these people? They are the straight As students who were pushed out by the education system when they had done their level best to score As and Bs and they are hurt psychologically and to avoid their miseries push drugs and so on.

And those students who are coming later will not want to perform seeing that As and Bs cannot give them a free ticket to higher learning institutions. Who would want to sweat and toil when the system will fail them.

Hare Igini
Doma Peaks, Hela Province   

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