More than 8,000 teachers in limbo

 MORE than 8,000 teachers have yet to complete their duty resumption forms in order to receive their salaries, Education Minister James Marape said in Parliament yesterday.

Responding to Wabag MP Robert Ganim’s questions, Marape said the teachers who had failed to submit their forms would be put off payroll and blamed for delayed or non-payment of salaries

He called on the teachers to return to their districts and provincial education offices to complete new resumption forms so they could be restored on the payroll in Port Moresby.

Marape said the Education Department would not process salaries unless their forms were endorsed by their district and provincial education advisers.

“Teachers are causing disaster for the students,” he said and added that since the government prioritised education, it had disbursed about K652 million of free education fees.

As a result of the policy, student numbers had increased from 53% to 70% nationally, with focus on increasing the enrolment. It was likely that PNG would achieve its United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Marape said.

A major setback, Marape said, was the lack of  a reporting system from schools, districts and provinces and that teachers would be paid according to their qualifications.