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Papua New Guinea Education Secretary Dr. Uke Kombra has singled out teacher’s attendance to class as an emerging issue that the Department needs to deal with urgently. Education Secretary Dr. Uke Kombra Dr. Kombra highlighted this when speaking at the opening of the National Teachers Rating Conference in Port Moresby yesterday. The Education Secretary says its a task that will need a collaborative effort from everyone within the education system. “In order for Papua New Guinea to address the issue or challenge of quality education – one area that we are all going to attend to is zero tolerance on teacher attendance. We must all address this. No one else will come and do it. Inspectors cannot say its PAs job. PA should not say its Inspectors job or teachers job. All of us have to play that role.” “If we can improve attendance, you will see the result of students actually learning in the classroom,” Dr. Kombra said. The National Teachers Rating Conference will end this Friday. NBC News /

“The reactivating of the visa on arrival functions for the MSG countries is an important achievement for the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) and helps to restore  international travel arrangements to pre-pandemic settings,” Deputy Prime Minister and Acting  Minister for Labour and Immigration, Hon. John Rosso, said. Deputy Prime Minister and Acting  Minister for Labour and Immigration, Hon. John Rosso The Melanesian Spearhead Group is an alliance of Melanesian countries. PNG shares close  personal and business ties with its Melanesian neighbours and bringing back the reciprocal  visa on arrival arrangements with the MSG has been a priority for the ICA. “Today, PNG reactivates its reciprocal visa on arrival arrangements allowing travellers from  countries within the Melanesian Spearhead Group including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,  Fiji and New Caledonia to enjoy streamlined travel to PNG,” Minister Rosso said. PNG’s Chief Migration Officer Stanis Hulahau said: ‘‘These

 PNG Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has thanked all 118 MPs for their support over the last two weeks, culminating in yesterday’s (December 2, 2022) marathon session in which the 2023 Budget was overwhelmingly passed. He also announced that he is leaving for Sydney, Australia, today (December 3, 2022) to attend the 16th PNG Mining and Petroleum Investment Conference. PNG PM Marape [Left] Minister Duma [right] PM Marape said Deputy Prime Minister Hon. John Rosso was out of the country on duty travel in Europe and Africa, and in their absence, United Resource Party Leader and State Enterprises Minister Hon. William Duma would be Acting Prime Minister. “I will be out for the country for three days and will be back next Tuesday (December 6, 2022) afternoon,” he said. “I ask our people to give their support to Hon. Duma, who has been an MP since 2002, while he is Acting Prime Minister.” PM Marape appealed to everyone in Papua New Guinea for peace and calm during the Christmas and New Year

BMW has been winter-testing what will be the first all-electric 5 Series sedan, writes Brian Byrne. The i5 had already been journeyed in Arctic conditions a year ago, but this latest round of extreme weather in Sweden last month  has been fine-tuning powertrain and chassis control systems using frozen lakes test areas, BMW says the results show the car performs ‘at least as proficiently’ as any conventionally powered vehicle in such conditions. 

Readers, please join me welcoming Dot Ryan, author of Corrigans’ Pool who’s guest blogging here today, courtesy Pump Up your Book Promotion. About the book – The South is embroiled in a bitter Civil War by the time Ella Corrigan discovers that Corrigans’ Pool is much more than the exquisitely beautiful pond she had thought it to be all her life. But by the time she learns its dangerous secret she is deeply entangled in a secret of her own . . . one that has made her a virtual prisoner, hopelessly trapped in a world dreadfully different from her previous existence as mistress of her gentle father’s palatial plantation home along the Savannah River. Stunned by what she sees, she must harden herself to her new surroundings or perish . . . along with the cowed and scarred Negroes who toil in her husband’s rice swamps and cotton fields. Life’s Lessons  Thank you very much for inviting me to A Book Blogger’s Diary. Lately, I’ve been looking back, thinking about my long journey from a wanna