The Government has partnered with the Seventh-day Adventist Church to commission senior education officers and pastors to serve as charging officers.
The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) conducted a workshop at the church head office in Lae, Morobe province, last week where it trained pastors, mission education secretaries and head teachers on disciplinary procedures and processes.
Six pastors and 11 mission education secretaries were empowered to investigate allegations of misconduct and breaches of the TSC rules and church codes by teachers.
The six pastors are area supervisors while the mission education secretaries are education directors serving in the church’s 10 mission fields in the country.
During the one and a half-day workshop, TSC chairman Samson Wangihomie, legal officer, Hilda David Aipi and principal advisor Jerome Sawin talked about the different aspects of disciplining teachers.
Mr Wangihomie spoke about the authorisation and delegation of TSC powers to charge and suspend teachers while Ms Aipi and Mr Sawin explained the commission’s discipline procedures and processes.
Topics covered were disciplinary investigations, suspension and charging among others. The pastors and educators took part in practical sessions to understand the disciplinary procedure and process.
Mr Wangihomie commended the participants for understanding the disciplinary procedure and urged them to diligently do their work.
“You have done extremely well. You can now lay a charge. Make sure your charges are specific. “Do not generalize. It will be difficult for you as you don’t have Adventist teachers only. You have teachers from other churches and some don’t even go to church.
“If you do not follow procedures and processes in disciplining teachers, your actions will demean the teaching profession,” he said.
The 17 new charging officers, deputy principals and others who attended the workshop received certificates.
Meanwhile, the church education director, Jim Yawane thanked the commission for conducting the workshop, which is the first among church denominations.
Mr Yawane said: “It is a historic occasion for the church. We have challenges, one of which is discipline.
“By empowering our team, it gives us the opportunity to work alongside our teachers to instill discipline."