Time to sort out teachers’ pay issue

SEVERAL thousand teachers have been put off the payroll because the Education Department’s pay office does not have their resumption forms.
Either they forgot to fill in that very important document – resumption of duty summary sheets (RODSS) – which is very unlikely as all teachers know the significance of that. Or, especially for teachers in rural areas, the forms from the schools are submitted to the district education inspectors and programme managers.
From there, the forms are sent to the provincial education office before the information is sent to the payroll division.
That is a process and we would like to believe that all forms reached its intended destination.
“A teacher is never an ordinary person. Construction and destruction can be produced in his lap.”
The above given quotation by Prateek Chauhan, shows the power of teachers and teaching.
It basically wraps up what a teacher is.
Teaching is a very important activity on which the base of any nation and culture is established
Last month, a workshop in Central was told the Education Department payroll division had received only 12,000 resumption forms from teachers.
Mind you, records from the Teachers Service Commission say 56,000 teachers are registered.
The RODSS form is vital because it determines the continuity of the teachers’ salary payment and for new graduates to be placed on the payroll. The general trade is for the services provided, there must be some remuneration so obviously all teachers will make filing in the resumption forms a priority.
Teaching is one of the most complicated jobs today.
It demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum, and standards; enthusiasm, a caring attitude, and a love of learning; knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques; and a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people.
While the system is there to save the Government from being cheated with some teachers getting paid for doing nothing, let us not punish the majority of the hard-working teachers whose forms have not reached Port Moresby because of the process involved.
It is not easy to find a teacher who will be willingly to teach without getting paid fortnightly and not just any teacher but an experienced teacher.
Teachers play an extraordinary part in the lives of children for the formative years of their development and the importance of teachers is something that cannot be understated.
The word “teaching” means the work of a teacher to provide knowledge and guidance.
It is one of the oldest and noblest services to the society in any culture.
Study after study show the single most important factor determining the quality of the education a child receives is the quality of his teacher.
If the teachers are put off the payroll, most will walk off their classrooms leaving the poor students to suffer.
The teachers’ resumption forms issue has already become a generic issue; it is time those at Waigani also go out to the provinces to find out what is the main cause of this issue that comes up every year.
They are sent to school to be taught and not become victims of a system. Lets’ consider our children also.