Teachers

Lae Teachers Threatened

Staff at Lae’s Flexible Open and Distance Education office are being threatened by frustrated former students and their parents.

Students who graduated from the Lae Community College since 2018 are yet to receive their Grade 10 and 12 certificates.

Head teacher, Cephas Malum, said despite their numerous emails, calls and visits to the Flexible Open and Distance Education headquarters at Waigani, the certificates of students from 2018 to 2021 are yet to be sent to Lae.

Teachers murdered in Madang

Madang Provincial Police Commander, Acting Superintendent Mazuc Rubiang, said while students and teachers begin the academic year, relatives of the three teachers are in mourning for their loved ones.

Madang teachers still await postings list

In a phone interview with Madang’s Director for Education Moses Sariki, besides the delay in teachers’ postings, they also have outstanding issues on teachers leave fares and grade nine selections. Mr Sariki said lack of funding from the provincial government has hindered them from completing these processes.

More teachers to be recruited

Provincial program advisor for education, Keith Tangui, said with a ceiling of 3,000, the province will start off by recruiting 500 teachers next year.

The education division aims to recruit graduates from other universities. However, Tangui said they will need to undergo further studies at the University of Goroka.

“We cannot get them direct from university and put them in the classroom, em mi tok nogat,” he stated.

Education Officials To Be Scrutinised

The development of human resource is important as it contributes to nation-building.

That is why Morobe’s provincial program advisor for education, Keith Tangui, emphasised that individuals involved in the teaching and learning sector will be closely scrutinised.

“This year, we’re going to make sure that they must do their jobs,” said Tangui.

“They must not run around Lae and do other jobs and the students will suffer back in the school.

Teachers Rush For Leave Fare

Over 1,000 teachers in Morobe Province have been joining the queue at Tutumang Haus since Tuesday, hoping to get their leave fares quickly so they can spend Christmas at home.

By 5am today, a line had already formed outside the small education office, with teachers coming from as far as the Huon Gulf district, Tewai-Siassi, Markham and Menyamya.

Tempers flared as they pushed and shoved to get in front of the small door where the provincial administration officers were seated.

COVID-19 claims 2 teachers

From a primary school in Lae (name withheld), one teacher passed away last Monday while another yesterday (Oct 18th).

“We closed the school yesterday and everyone was ordered by the head teacher, and all the teachers were taken down to the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium for COVID testing,” said Tangui.

Contact tracing and testing are currently underway, with Tangui saying a decision will be made pending test results.

At Menyamya Primary School, five teachers tested positive.

“No deaths have occurred,” he stated.

Teachers’ auto-suspension on April 23

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.

Women teachers focused

They are among thousands of teachers driving and participating in a program to improve education outcomes for girls and boys.

International Women’s Day (March 8th) is an opportune time to celebrate the achievements of women teachers who are advocating for change and greater equality for their students.

Since 2018, the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership has supported the Rapidly Improving Standards in Elementary Education project (RISE), which has trained more than 2,500 teachers and is benefiting over 100,000 girls and boys across the country.

Teachers resume

For Morobe, its provincial program advisor for education, Keith Tangui, says teachers should be filling in their resumption of duty summary (RODS) forms starting on January 25th to the 29th.

Tangui stressed that teachers should be in school, considering appointments were made and endorsed by the Provincial Education Board last year. The postings were then published on November 2020 and put up at the Tutumang noticeboard as well as distributed to outside districts.