Education Secretary, Dr Uke Kombra, has advised that the auto-suspension for teachers on payroll will be on April 23, affecting a total of 32,303 teachers throughout the country.
Secretary Kombra said data entry of teachers’ Resumption of Duty Summary Sheets (RoDSS) was supposed to happen last week but with the shutdown of services, the data entry of remaining RoDSS on hand is now affected, thus has been deferred to pay#8, paydate 23rd April.
“Auto-suspension or automated suspension happens when the system (ALESCO payroll) suspends teachers when their resumption of duty form is not registered in the system. This is a normal process that falls around this time of the year.
“After suspension, the affected teachers will be restored on payroll after receipts of copies of their RoDSS by Provincial Education Advisors,” the Secretary explained.
The Department has advised that teacher resumption exercise was carried out over six weeks and payroll was responsible or processing RoDSS for six provinces and national institutions. The provinces RoDSS processed at the head office due to no Ednet connectivity include; Gulf, Western, Southern Highlands, West New Britain, Jiwaka and Hela.
Also, the RoDSS for national institutions are processed at the head office.
Sixteen provinces were responsible for managing their teachers’ RoDSS. Fourteen provinces were able to input their RoDSS except Sandaun and Morobe that had issues with manpower and damaged Ednet cables. These two provinces’ RoDSS data entry will be assisted by head office.
The Secretary has raised key issues in the data entry for RoDSS which are;
- Slow flow of RoDSS to processing site
- Delays in signing of RoDSS by Provincial Education Advisors
- Late appointment of staff
- Changes in education advisors
Provinces with the highest number of teachers that will be affected by the auto-suspension are:
- Morobe
- Southern Highlands
- Madang
- Simbu
- East Sepik
- Eastern Highlands
- West New Britain
- West Sepik
Dr. Kombra has called on the respective provincial education advisors to get their job done immediately so teachers are not unnecessarily affected.
(Morobe teachers checking their postings at Tutumang Haus in Lae)