Teachers’ pay cut to be rectified, says Uguro

By JINA AMBA and MIRIAM ZARRIGA
THE 10,000 teachers who have not been paid should expect money in their bank accounts in the next fortnightly pay, says Education Minister Jimmy Uguro.
The 10,000 teachers had to be suspended from the Education Department payroll because their resumption-of-duty forms had not been received.
The forms are normally sent to the payroll section through the provincial education office at the start of each school year.
“Out of the 65,000 teachers around the country, only 10,000 are on auto-suspension. We are addressing this to ensure all teachers are on payroll by next pay at least,” Uguro said.
“It has been a tradition that after teachers are posted, new resumption of duty forms are completed for teachers to be on the payroll.”
Auto-suspension comes into force in March or April if the resumption of duty forms have not been received by the pay clerks.
“Teachers and provinces must comply with the requirements at the beginning of each year.  No teacher must give excuses,” Uguro said.
Uguro said education officers would be sent to provinces to find out the cause of the delay in submitting forms.
They will also collect any outstanding form from the provincial education advisers.
Uguro said some teachers in rural areas had trouble sending through their forms on time because of the remoteness of the schools.
Other have no proper data or face posting problems.
Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra said the automated suspension “happens when the Alesco payroll system suspends teachers whose resumption of duty form is not registered in the system”.
“This is a normal process that falls around this time of the year,” he said.
The affected teachers will be restored on the payroll after their forms are received and entered into the system.