Remove fraud teachers: Officer

By JINA AMBA
TEACHING Service Commission Chairman Samson Wangihomie says teachers who entered teachers colleges fraudulently must be deregistered and terminated. Wangihomie was responding to concerns raised by PNG Teachers Association representatives regarding deregistration of teachers recently. “A fraud is a fraud,” he said. “We are not going to get fraudsters in here. “They are not going to be a good example to the children that they teach. “We have decided that any graduate who comes out from a teacher’s college with evidence of fraud, they will be terminated as a member of the Teaching Service Association. “This applies to teachers who are currently teaching.“The secretary will deregister them and we will terminate them on the spot. “We won’t get them back, they are fraudsters.” PNGTA general-secretary David Numbaming shared the same sentiments and said earlier that the country needed more teachers. He said the State education agencies and systems were capable of allowing fraudulent practices to take place. “Where was the monitoring team, and what were they doing in the first place when selecting students to teachers colleges?” Numbaming said.
“Come this far and is too late to penalise teachers.” He said deregistering fraudulent teachers was to maintain quality and integrity. Numbaming said the country need more teachers and removing a sizable portion of the workforce would only place more pressure on schools and disadvantage students. He said the Education Department needed to come up with an alternative to the dismissal of teachers such as a range of penalties.