Staff evicted from classrooms

By JINA AMBA
STAFF residing illegally in classrooms and offices at the Gerehu Primary School in Port Moresby were evicted on Friday.
According to head teacher Philip Tiki, nine staff members and their families, numbering more than 20, had been using the buildings as living quarters since 2012.
He said the staff included six teachers and three ancillary staff.
Tiki said the staff members and their families had been using the school’s water and power increasing its utilities bill.
He said the water bill had increased to K125,000.
Tiki said some staff resided in the offices, others in elementary classrooms and one teacher resided in the elementary student ablution block.
He said elementary school students had to use the toilets of the upper grades because theirs was used by a teacher and his family.
Tiki said the teachers needed office space to do their work like planning lessons and assess junior teachers.
Deputy head teacher Christine Marcus said the eviction was carried out because the school had just established a board of management.
“The eviction notices were given last December but they were reluctant to move out of the office blocks,” she said.
Marcus said the school needed its classrooms and offices and other facilities available in order to function properly.
She said senior teachers also needed to be housed properly in order to do their jobs well.
“Now we have a board in place so they are here to make sure that all these buildings are available for staff and students to use,” she said.
“That’s the whole reason for the eviction exercise to remove ancillary and teaching staff who are residing in the school and occupying these buildings,” she said.
Marcus said relatives visited those who resided on school property, especially on weekends, and this resulted in damages to school property and security issues.
She said the previous administration had allowed teachers and staff to reside at the school.