200 elementary teachers in Madang out of payroll

About 200 elementary teachers in Madang are not on payroll since 2014, it was revealed yesterday.
A group of elementary teachers met and aired their concerns which were backed by students and parents.
One of them, who wished not be named, said they had been filling necessary forms continuously to complete the process of having them on payroll but that did not bring any changes to their situation.
The teachers said they contributed and sent a representative to Port Moresby to tender documents that could have them on payroll but all their efforts went to waste.
They said they don’t know what went wrong and called on the PNG Education Institute and the Education Department’s elementary and salary divisions to explain to them. Madang education director Moses Sariki referred their queries to the provincial education elementary coordinator Parau Tobaia but Tobaia could not be reached for comment.
However, Raicoast education programme manager Clement Awan said missing communication was the only link that could have the teachers on payroll.
Awan said Raicoast has more than 100 elementary school teachers who graduated in 2014 and were yet to be on government payroll.
He said those teachers were struggling to survive but communities, especially parents of students from their schools, were supplying them with food and helping them with other necessities to keep them going.