Ramu NiCo opened another new double classroom for Kouye Primary School on Friday, 10th October, along the highway leading to Uisno Junction in Usino Bundi Gama District in Madang Province.
The new classroom was funded through Ramu NiCo’s Community Development Fund for the LOA as their discretionary fund, which is for funding infrastructure programs in respective associations along the Inland Pipeline, Coastal Pipeline, Kurumbukari LOA, and Basamuk LOA. This funding is different from annual Royalty Payments.
The key of the new classroom was presented to the school by the Inland Pipeline Chairman for the Association, Mr Yauni, saying the association has been mostly delivering infrastructure programs along its association, with its main intention being to support educational institutions for young children to learn and be educated.
The school was established by the Nickel and Cobalt Mine in 2006 during the construction phase of the mine, with the establishment of a permanent double classroom building with two teachers’ houses, fencing, and others in 2006. In 2009, the school doors were officially opened as the then-new Elementary School, and now the school has been upgraded again into Kouye Primary School.
Headmistress for Kouye Elementary and Primary School, Ms Yauli Doria, said the school has been a learning environment that has brought up most of Kouye children’s upbringing since the 2000s, when Kouye first began as an elementary school, teaching its first batch of students under a traditional building. However, Ramu NiCo played an important role for the once-elementary school in 2009, with a more conducive learning environment for the students back then.
“This year, 2026, I want to take this time to also thank Ramu NiCo as the only mining company in Madang that has placed fundamental human rights needs in our Kouye Community, which has been the backbone to most of our youths who have passed out of Kouye Primary and are now working, self-employed, and becoming productive citizens of Usino Bundi and Gama District of Madang Province.”
“The establishment of the school then in 2009 helped us a lot to where we are now with the current Primary School status,” the headmistress said.
Ramu NiCo Community Affairs General Manager, Mr Eric Kuman, who was there to officially open the new classroom, also acknowledged Kouye Primary School for maintaining a steady flow of teaching and learning that was recognised by Usino Education Division, which has now introduced another milestone to the school’s rich history.
“From teaching and learning in a rural setting into a modern learning environment and now another step above the ladder to Primary School status, this is how progress and growth with determination, effort, and strong support from Government and Corporate Citizens like Ramu NiCo,” Kuman said.
Kuman confirmed that without the mine’s intervention in 2006, the school would have been shut down or would have been abandoned. However, Ramu NiCo’s support then, during the construction phase and during the establishment of the Inland Pipeline of the mine, had begun this rich history.
