Students at the Kikori Secondary School in the Gulf province now have access to a modern computer laboratory equipped with e-library facilities that will greatly enhance learning. 

 The computer laboratory is the first of its kind to be built in the area. It is a modern fully furnished building equipped with 24 computers and 1 teacher workstation. 

The laboratory, the computers and its server are powered by a new 15kW solar power system that will provide power 24 hours a day. The e-library can be accessed by the students and their teachers through a local area network (LAN) that was installed. 

Learning materials for all the subjects taught are available, including popular reading and educational books. As the system is not Wide Area Network (WAN), the students are protected from harmful internet materials. 

The project was delivered by Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) and its subsidiary the PNG LNG Gas Resources Pipeline Ltd (Segment 7) at a cost K1.18 million. This cost includes the classroom, the computers, LAN systems and solar powered systems. 

 Jubilant students and their parents joined MRDC Managing Director Mr Augustine Mano and local leaders of Kikori in celebrating the opening of the facilities yesterday. Mr. Mano has visited the school in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, and learnt first-hand the many needs of the school. He decided there and then that the best help for the students would be a modern facility to enhance learning. 

“In places like Kikori and other project areas, kids have the potential but can lose interest in education very quickly due to lack of good learning facilities, lack of teachers, and remoteness of the villages they live in. “That is why we must deliver these facilities to them, to keep them in the classrooms, to ensure the learning materials they have access to are on par with more privileged kids in urban areas and the rest of the world have access to. “We are determined that no project area child is left behind,” Mr. Mano said when handing over the facilities to the school administrators.He said a similar facility would be built in schools in the PNG LNG project footprint areas like Semberigi, Kutubu, Moran and Komo in Southern Highlands and Hela provinces. Gas Resources Pipeline (Segment 7) Director Mr. Wauro Oumabe was proud that the facility, the first of its kind in the area, was delivered for kids in Kikori. “This brings learning for our children to be at least on par with kids in other parts of PNG who are not as disadvantaged as us in very remote and forgotten parts of the country,” he said. Mr Oumabe urged the school students to make use of the facilities and look after them.