Teacher Grace waits to be paid – 4yrs on

By ROSELYN ELLISON
I T is coming to the end of another school year and teacher Grace Longkarea is still waiting to be paid.
In fact, the 45-year-old mother of four has been waiting for the past four years to receive her pay from the Education Department. She is a teacher at the Kaiton Primary School in Pomio, East New Britain.
“But I haven’t given up on teaching. I still execute my duties from 8am to 4.06pm five days a week in the past four years.”
Grace has been teaching for 18 years. She was one of the teachers taken off the payroll in 2016 after a mix-up in teacher postings.
She was initially posted to the Lau Primary School. But later the education coordinator in Pomio sent her to an unregistered school in a “borrowed position” arrangement.
She was instructed to start classes at the unregistered school.
“I filled in the resumption of duty form for the school not knowing that someone else was already being paid for the same position.”
She has since been requesting the education officials in Pomio to sort out her documents so that she could be back on the payroll but to no avail.
In 2017, she was transferred to the Kaiton Primary School. She thought her pay would then be sorted out. But still nothing up to today.
Grace is wondering why she is being punished for something out of her control. Why is the Teaching Service Commission not doing anything about her case, and of others who may be facing a similar problem?
“Is there a budget for this position or is it an unpaid? Is it dormant? The education department is advertising gazetted positions which we teachers are applying for.”
She has been travelling from Pomio to Kokopo every now and then to seek an answer from the ENB division of education officials. She is treated the same. They tell her to fill forms which she had already submitted. She has now been told that the Teaching Service Commission is still sorting out her pay problem.
It is taking ages. She loves being part of the noble profession and wants to help in the education of children in her village Kaiton. But she also has a family to look after. The youngest of her four children is still in primary school.
Despite the hardship, Grace remains committed. What keeps her going is the loyalty and dedication to her profession, a passion for teaching children, and knowing that someone is watching her from “above”.
“It is hard for me. I struggle to provide for my children’s clothes, school fees, food and medical expenses. I am a mother of four and must provide for them. I just want them to have a good future.”