Leave fares still an issue for trio

THREE teachers at Lebagoro Primary School in the Rigo district in Central province, are among many who have not received their leave fares from the Central provincial administration (CPA) education division.
Senior teacher John Kaupa from Simbu province, who had been teaching at Lebagoro primary for two years, said on Tuesday that
he and fellow teachers Kul Igibe, also from Simbu, and headmaster Jonah Michael, from New Ireland province, missed out on getting their entitlements on Monday.
“We put in our
applications through our district education coordinator Francis Kila in April last year.
“But when we went in, our names were not on the last list,” Mr Kaupa explained.
A total of 99 teachers were paid their leave fares, leaving 42 yet to be paid on the list.
However, Mr Kaupa said their names were not among the 42.
He hoped education adviser Titus Hatagen would include their names and secure funds to pay them.
He also said many of the teachers had not
been informed of
their appointments and did not know where to go.
“There were many postings which were left vacant and yet many teachers missed out on the appointments,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Hatagen said the long outstanding leave fares were being sorted out.
“There are processes that teachers have to
follow.
“If they had
not followed the right procedure then they
had missed out, or the payment would be delayed,” he said.
Mr Hatagen said some of the teachers were
not being honest and falsely claiming for dependents who did
not exist and the CPA
education division would be identifying them individually.