Teachers worry: Who will take us home when we die?

PAPUA New Guinea Teachers’ Association Mamose regional secretary Michael Aimos is calling on provincial education divisions to include in their budget the cost of taking home the body of teachers who die while employed.
Aimos said that it has become a norm where the State claimed the body of deceased public servants and took responsibility to have the Coroner’s inquest done before repatriating it. The head teacher of the Mongniol Primary School in East Sepik, Clement Walama, said they had to pay repatriation and other expenses for the bodies of five teachers who had died there over the past two weeks.
Aimos said Walama should have sought advice from the provincial authorities.
He said Walama’s comments prompted association general secretary Ugwailubu Mowana to criticise the state over the lack of assistance.
“It is understood that teachers in provinces are employees of the National Teaching Service Commission – that is a state entity enshrined under the Teaching Service Act to look after the teachers’ employment and welfare conditions,” Aimos said.
He said that teachers were sent to provinces on secondment to teach for three years in specific locations.
Teachers were then allowed to move on when he or she applied to another location in the same province or another, based on the success of application.
“Teachers join PNGTA purposely for the union to speak for them to ensure better working conditions and also they are not intimidated in any manner” Amos said.