Papua New Guinea’s Department of Education launched the Resilient School Infrastructure Policy and manual, a new national framework designed to ensure schools across the country are safe, inclusive and able to withstand natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, cyclones and landslides.

The policy and manual were officially launched at a ceremony in Port Moresby, attended by senior government officials, and representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Pacific Community (SPC), which supported its development through the EU-funded Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific (BSRP) Phase II project.

The documents will now be distributed to national and sub-national education stakeholders to guide the planning, design, construction, maintenance and management of school infrastructure nationwide.

Delivering a speech at the launch, on behalf of the Minister for Education, Hon. Francis Kikin Siune, MP, the Deputy Secretary for the Schools Directorate, Mr Walipe Wingi, said resilient infrastructure was central to the Government’s ‘Leave no child behind’ agenda and to ensuring that free education translated into real access for every child.

“Free education and access to education are not the same,” Mr Wingi said, noting that a child can still be shut out of school if classrooms are overcrowded, unsafe, without water and sanitation, or destroyed by a flood or cyclone. “Infrastructure is how we ensure ‘Leave no child behind’ truly leaves no community behind.” .