Principals accused of foul play

Lae News, Normal
Source:

The National- Tuesday, January 11, 2011

 SERIOUS allegations of misuse and unethical practices have been levelled against principals of two old schools in Lae.

In one school, the married principal was accused of having an affair with a teacher and also of having misused almost K1 million in the past two years.

The female teacher he was allegedly having an affair with was promoted to head of department and also handpicked to be on the school governing council.

Teachers said the parents and the community should have been the ones to nominate a teacher onto the council.

They said they had complained to the provincial education board but their “struggle in tackling the malpractices hadn’t been taken seriously” allowing the problems to worsen.

They produced copies of letters they had written to the provincial education adviser.

In the other school, a sponsor gave K10,000 to buy prizes for all grades during the graduation. 

The school did not have its graduation and the prizes were not given out.

“If they were given out, the money would have been used. But they were not. They were not even posted,” a teacher said.