Education Minister Lucas Dawa Dekena blames provincial education authorities on teachers pay

Education Minister Lucas Dawa Dekena blames “incompetency by Province Education Authorities” resulting in thousands of teachers nationwide put off the payroll.

“I have been informed that the teacher Resumption of Duty Summary Sheets (RODSS) were not actioned early as expected resulting in more than 1,000 teachers being on auto suspension,” Mr Dekena in response to comments made by West New Britain [WNB] Governor Sasindran Muthuvel.

“The recent update show work being carried out, seeing a decrease in the figure to 785, which is 29 percent of the total number of teachers teaching in WNB.

“The provincial government IT [information technology] officers have been working tirelessly since Wednesday to ensure teachers RODSS are uploaded in the system and is expected to be completed this week.”

The education minister confirms that thousands of teachers nationwide had been removed the department payroll.   

“The issue is not only faced in West New Britain [WNB]; but the other 22 provinces as well, WNB has the highest number of percentage on teachers’ auto suspension followed by East Sepik province by 22 per cent,” Mr Dekena said.

“Directions have been issued to respective heads within the education department and provinces to rectify the issue and address it immediately [and also] instructed the Education Secretary to restore the teachers affected back on the payroll and give the provinces one month to fix the teachers' resumption information.

“Auto-suspension is a feature configured into the payroll to ensure teachers are actually at their assigned posts teaching our children.

“This is also an excellent feature that assists in removing ghost names from the education payroll.

“The details that populate the system are collected in the schools and verified by the provincial Education authorities then uploaded into the payroll system.”