Teachers lack housing – The National

Gerehu Primary School deputy board chairman Moses Mel and head teacher Philip Tiki outside the elementary student’s ablution block. A teacher had been using this area as his kitchen and slept inside the ablution block with his family. – Nationalpic by JINA AMBA

A PRIMARY school head teacher in Port Moresby has urged Governor Powes Parkop and local MPs to fund the construction of teachers’ houses.
Gerehu Primary School’s Philip Tiki said the lack of adequate accommodation for teachers was an ongoing issue not just in the National Capital District (NCD) but nationwide as well.
He said this on Friday after the school’s board was forced to remove staff who resided in the school property with their families as it was illegal.
Tiki, who has taught in NCD for the last 16 years, said he had been renting accommodation in settlements.
He said many teachers in the city were in a similar position.
Tiki stressed that while accommodation was not a condition of their employment, teachers’ welfare was important and had a bearing on how he or she taught in a classroom.
He said teaching materials, references and equipment were crucial for education but teachers’ welfare also needed to be considered.
Tiki said the staff who was evicted on Friday were now on the streets looking for accommodation while others were looking for building materials to erect homes near the Gerehu swamp.
Tiki said he could not do much because the staff had to vacate the building they were living in so it could be used by the students.
Tiki said good accommodation in Port Moresby was expensive and teachers struggled to survive.
Gerehu Primary School deputy board chairman Moses Mel said the school had vacant land where teachers’ houses could be built but needed funding to start a housing project.