Increase Goods and Services Tax (GST) to cater for free education to all Papua New Guineans

Ken Fairweather, MP, Member for SUMKAR

The time has come for genuine, wide ranging, national debate on the best way to ensure that every children in Papua New Guinea has access to a complete school education. In the most developed and in many developing countries education is regarded as a right not a privilege. Because it is a right, it is available without compulsory school fees in the public education system.

The payment of school fees by Papua New Guinea's parents is a mental and physical burden
on our whole society, and it is a burden that is not shared equally and fairly. Finding the funds to pay school fees reduces a significant section of the population to beggars, thieves and prostitutes. Increasingly it, is driving people into the death grip of loan sharks.

Even more worryingly the old are being forced to contribute to the burden of meeting
school fees. The whole structure of community living and giving is being paralysed by this
burden. It is on the minds of parents, their children and grand parents and other relatives
24/7.

Because school fees are compulsory and are imposed without any regard to the capacity of
parents to pay, our literary levels are stuck in the 50's percent plus area- That is where they
have been for years-and they are not significant progressing as our nation grows. While 70 percent of children have some education, just two thirds of children entering school at grade one will complete grade six. And it gets worse from then on- just over one
third of grade six students go on to grades even.

There are several reasons why our school attendance and retention levels are simply not
good enough.We have not built enough schools, we have not trained enough teachers, and
we continue to charge everyone regardless of income-to send their children to school.
If we are to lift literacy to acceptable levels, and ensure that 100 percent of our children
have access to a basic education, we simply have to abolish school fees.

Recent research shows school fees can be abolished by increasing G. S. T. to 15 percent - and
that revenue raised be directly spent and abolishing school fees. Increasing the goods and services tax (G.S.T.) will mean that everyone- including politicians, the well off, business people, tourists, foreign workers and everyone else will contribute towards the school fees -and the more they buy, the more they contribute.

What we must NOT do is be scared of claims that an increase in the G.S.T will be too much
of a burden. Nonsense! The effect of a 15% GST will be an extra 15t on a 1 kg of rice- and K4,000 on an K80.000 car. If anyone can afford to buy a K80,000.00 car, they can afford the extra GST as a contribution to the education of the nation's children.

Lifting the burden of having to raise school fees will make families and communities
happier. People will have more money to spend on food, on clothes and the necessities of
life. They will have more time to enjoy life without the ever present worry of how they are
going to pay to educate their children. There may also be a spin-off benefit in that the village market prices may actually fall. There will be less pressure to raise income.

Apart from the fact that raising the GST will ensure that the cost is shared- and the greatest
share will be met by those who are available to afford it. By international standards our GST is not high and it will not be high if it is increased to 15 percent. The GST in Uruguay is 22%, Turkey is 18%, China is 17%, and Barbados and England is 15%. We cannot afford to wait for the promised land of LNG project revenue windfalls. That is 6 to 10 years away.

WE NEED TO MOVE NOW! And ease the burden of school fees on families and lift our
school attendance rates. I intend to introduce a proposal into the national parliament requiring the Treasury to plan for the introduction of a 15 % GST, accompanied by the abolition of school fees, from the start of the 2010 school year. That step will force the issue to be debated. It will force Members of Parliament to stand up and be counted.

I would welcome your views and l would especially welcome your support. The contact
details are set out below. But the time for talking and promising is over. The time for action has arrived.

Hon. Ken Fairweather, MP
Member for Sumkar Open
P. O. Box Parliament Haus
Waigani, N.C.D. Papua New Guinea

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