Provincial Education Authorities directed to immediately sort teachers’ pay issue

Provincial Education Authorities are being held responsible by Education Minister Lukas Dekena for the issue of teachers being removed from the payroll on May 17

Mr. Dekena says it is the incompetence of the Provincial Education Authorities in addressing the payroll issue that led to teachers not receiving their pay on time.

He made these comments in response to recent statements by West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel regarding teachers' pay problems.

The Governor was told that Teacher Resumption Duty Summary Sheets (RODSS) were not processed on time, resulting in over 1,000 teachers being placed on auto suspension.

The auto suspension of teachers on the payroll is a widespread issue across the 22 provinces in the country. West New Britain has the highest number of teachers on auto suspension, followed by East Sepik with the second largest number.

Mr Dekena assured that instructions have been given to relevant heads within the Education Department and the provinces to rectify the pay issue immediately.

Auto suspension is a feature integrated into the payroll system to ensure that teachers are actually present at their assigned posts teaching students.

It's an excellent feature that helps to remove ghost names from the Education payroll. The information that feeds into the system is collected in the schools, verified by the Provincial Education Authorities, and then uploaded into the payroll system.