Pay rise to cover teachers

PUBLIC Service Minister Joe Sungi says the country’s 65,000 teachers are part of the civil service and are entitled to the three per cent pay rise approved for all public servants.
“My department is waiting for the union (Papua New Guinea Teachers’ Association) and the Teaching Service Commission to (finalise the details),” he said.
“And from there, the process comes to us. Finance and Treasury (departments) will be able to release the funding to pay all the teachers in the country.”
Sungi said there were around 65,000 teachers out of the 130,000 public servants on the government payroll.
Meanwhile, PNGTA president Aita Sanagkepe explained outside Parliament that the delay in the submission was due to in-house matters which had been resolved.
He confirmed that a submission on the (consumer price index-based) pay rise for teachers had already been made to the Teaching Service Commission. He said since 2019, teachers had not been given any pay rise and were now requesting a 12 per cent increase.
“We ask the DPM to fast track the payment before the resumption of duties in the second quarter of 2023,” he said.
Teaching Service Commission chairman Samson Wangihomie said he had made the submissions already.