By JAMES G KILA

SAINT Anna’s Annaberg Primary School is as remote as the long and winding Ramu River in Madang Province.

Perched on the banks of muddy brown Ramu, St Anna’s Annaberg has stood the test of time – a school proud of its humble beginnings, and a school destined for greater glory and a place in the future of PNG.

The school, situated in the remote Arabaka Local Level Government area in Middle-Ramu District, has made history in Madang Province and supposedly PNG generally to build a superb-looking eight-in-one classroom to cater for its students’ learning.

This remarkable eight-in-one classroom building looks more fitting to accommodate a high school comfortably in an urban setting just by its outstanding features, however, it was purposely intended to cater for the increasing primary school students from eight wards in Arabaka LLG which dwell along the banks of the milky brown Ramu river and the catchment of the towering Bismark range in Middle-Ramu district.

The provincial member and Governor for Madang Province, Ramsey Pariwa, who was invited to officiate at the opening of the new school on June 12, 2025 was overwhelmed upon noticing the outstanding infrastructure.

Pariwa heaped praise on the school board and management for their determination and perseverance in establishing such an important learning facility for the school situated in a remote location in Middle-Ramu District.

He made a commitment to support St Anna Annaberg Primary School with K50,000.
The governor also pledged another K50,000 to St Joachim Annaberg Junior High School, which currently is using classrooms built of bush-material.

Pariwa flew into Annaberg by helicopter accompanied by an official from the Teaching Services Commission official, Kenneth Kalai to attend this significant event for the education sector in Middle-Ramu District.

It is indeed a momentous occasion for this remote school in this land-locked district of Middle-Ramu where there no road access, however, people resort to travelling the Ramu river upstream to Banu in Usino-Bundi District to catch PMV to travel to Madang town to do business and access government services.

Pariwa praised the school’s board and management for their sacrifice and determination to having saved up over K500,000 from the TFF funds from the Education Department from 2027 till 2024 to build the eight-in-one classroom.

Pariwa said it was the hard work and the sacrifice of the people in Annaberg that compelled him to travel to attend the occasion.

“I must thank the teachers, parents, school board of management for their determination and perseverance to using the TFF funds wisely to build such an impressive school infrastructure in form of an eight-in-one classroom which is so unique,

“I must also thank the students who have helped by walking down to the waterfront to collect sand and even carry building materials up to the school area for the building work,” Pariwa stated.

“Today I also stand here appreciating the government’s TFF initiative, and tell you how proud I am to see that you have utilised the TFF wisely to create an important school infrastructure,”

“I don’t know what other schools have done with their TFF. I don’t know how much they are getting and how many times they’ve been receiving their TFF from the Government and from what year till now?” Pariwa remarked.

“I’ve also head stories that some schools are not getting their TFF and some reports of TFF funds going missing along the way and police are now carrying out investigation,

“But today I stand here very proud and am very impressed to say that the TFF that came to Annaberg Primary School is not lost along the way but has done a tremendous job in building an eight-in-one classroom,” he said.

St Anna Annaberg Primary School head, Regina Jegure, originally from Manus province but a citizen of Annaberg by marriage, explained that it was a sacrifice of the teachers and the board of management and even parents and students that had made it possible for the eventual completion of the eight-in-one classroom.

“One head teacher who visited our school in January asked if the classroom was meant for high school students and I said no. It was for the primary school.

“He went on to ask how much it costs to build such a long classroom, and I told him that it costs over K500,000, and further explained that since 2017 using our SLIP plan we began purchasing materials such as the iron posts and the roofing iron and began keeping them in our warehouses. These warehouses are places under our old classrooms and teachers houses,” Mrs Jegure said.

SLIP stands for ‘school learning improvement project’.

Board chairman of St Anna Annabegr Primary School, Paul Kunai and his executive along with the teaching staff were grateful and appreciative of Governor Pariwa’s presence at the school to officially open the eight-in-one classroom.

A local carpenter from Josephstaal named Arnold Usikai, who works as a contractor with the Catholic Archdiocese in Madang was responsible for the building of the eight-in-one classroom, Usikai and 11 helpers contributed their effort in building the permanent eight-in-one classroom taking them five months to eventually complete the task.

The new eight-in-one classroom is named Kanagula-Jegure Building in respect of the head teacher Mrs Jegure and her deputy head teacher Ben Kanagula who has been instrumental in making sure the project came to fruition.

  • JAMES KILA works as the Media Officer to the Office of the Madang Governor.