Unpaid teachers living in hope

I ACKNOWLEDGE all the hard work being done by the officers in the Madang salaries section of the Education department.
Their tireless effort in the processing of salaries of teachers in the province, numbering in the thousands, is a mammoth task and shouldn’t go unnoticed.
While all seem to be well in general, there are also vast anomalies in the system that needs to be addressed and primary among them is the prolonged delay of putting serving teachers back into the payroll.
Some of us teachers live and serve in very remote parts of the province and it is very difficult and expensive for us to travel into town to make enquiries or check on things.
It is frustrating and derailing to wake up every day and face these challenges over and over again.
Despite numerous attempts, which include sending official documentation to the authorities, making follow-up visits to the salaries office every month and making phone calls every fortnight, I have yet to realise the fruit of my labour.
We are committed to the profession and have been volunteering for months and I also empathise with those who have been facing these problems for years.
In the hope of seeing unpaid salaries backdated one day, these teachers push on in spite of not receiving any financial rewards.
Come on, these humble civil servants deserve better and I am calling on the education authorities, either in our beautiful province or in Port Moresby, to look into this matter and fast track our pay queries.
This is pay 22 and with only four pay days left before the year ends, we are optimistic and hopeful that whatever the error (systematic or human), will be corrected in due course.
I have exhausted all avenues within my grasp to bring this issue to light and I am hopeful that this article will provide the publicity that, hopefully, will help speed things up a little bit and result in us having a better Christmas.

Committed
Ohiss Mel