Teachers yet to receive postings

MORE than 1,000 primary and secondary school teachers in Morobe province have yet to receive their postings for the school year, which starts on Monday.
Some of the teachers who have been turning up occasionally at the provincial education office were told by officers that their appointments were still being reviewed.
One frustrated teacher said she “just didn’t know” where she was going to teach this year.
The teacher, who hails from the isolated Menyamya district, now faces an even bigger problem especially with the distance she had to travel in the past years to a school in the Siassi district.
She said some of her colleagues who have been in similar situations would have an extra burden on their shoulders if they had to travel long distances to their new schools.
With the appointments still in question, most of the teachers claim the delay in their appointment showed slackness in the education division.
Bernard Limoto, a headmaster in one of the primary schools in the city, explained that normally a vacancy gazette for teachers’ positions comes out in the middle of the year.
This would be around June, July or late August for teachers to apply.
So by early December or just before the festive period, teachers would have known where their appointments for the New Year would be.
“For this year, this has not been the case and is causing a lot of problems,” another teacher at a city school said.
According to the provincial education advisor, Murika Bihoro, reviewing of teachers’ appointments began last week and should have been completed yesterday.
By today all teachers would be informed of their new postings so they could begin making arrangements for travel – especially for those in rural areas.
Principals of secondary schools have also been waiting for their new appointments.