Students and staff warmly welcomed the Digicel Foundation team on the 1st of June to the groundbreaking of the new 4-in-1 double-storey classroom.
The infrastructure is valued at K1.6 million, which is, by far, the highest amount the Foundation has ever spent on a single classroom.
Busu principal, George Noble, acknowledged Digicel PNG’s head of regions and general managers, consumer sales, Brian Malone, for putting him in touch with the Foundation’s CEO, Serena Sasingian.
This was the first vital step and Busu is looking forward to opening their new classroom in seven months’ time.
“There are more than 426 high and secondary schools in the country altogether,” said Noble.
“From the 426 schools, Digicel PNG, through the Digicel Foundation, selected Busu Secondary School as their priority school for community development program.
“That means they have identified some good qualities in Busu Secondary School. These good qualities are students’ positive attitude, grooming and academic performance as well as good administration.”
The principal outlined that since 2016, the school has been exceeding academic expectations, and is one of the top 5 schools in the nation.
Noble further thanked the foundation for purchasing a new generator for them, which they started using early this year.
“And we are enjoying our teaching and learning because of the assistance from Digicel Foundation,” he stated.
Foundation CEO, Serena Sasingian, said education is the foundation for socio-economic development in any nation that is why Digicel PNG not only builds towers for telecommunication, but also classrooms.
Sasingian said the Foundation chose Busu because despite not having quality infrastructure, they had excellent leadership.
“We said, ‘this is the school that is worth investing in’.
“We shouldn’t just do the usual double-classrooms but we need to go over and above it’s a model school.
“And when you incentivise schools that are doing the right things, other schools begin to look at them and go, ‘Ok, if we want to get that, what do we have to do?’
“So that began our journey at the end of 2020 when we signed our first MoU.”
Capex Solutions has been awarded the contract, with Sasingian urging the Busu community to make them feel welcome.
