Teaching Service Commission (TSC)

Branch president, Tony Marupi, said the appointment of teaching service advisor, Mufuanuc Teka Zurete, will now make things easier when it comes to addressing teachers’ welfare.

“Our welfare will be looked at because the association can now deal directly with the officer and teachers can actually find out properly about appointments, the Act itself, the conditions of employment; all these things can be ironed out properly here rather than them going down to Port Moresby,” stated Marupi.

“We welcome this.

The signing was between the Teaching Service Commission and the Oro Provincial Government.

TSC acting Commissioner, Samson Wangihomie, said the idea is to take the service to where its recipients are, hence the delegation of powers.

Teachers in Northern no longer need to waste resources to go to Waigani as the powers delegated to Oro include payroll, vacation, compassionate and sick leave, health of member and leave without pay for up to two years. The Oro Education Division has been delegated powers under the Teaching Service Act Part VIII.

The Bomana De La Salle Secondary School, outside Port Moresby, currently has a principal appointed by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) and a nominee from the Catholic Agency itself.

The former principal, James Ume, officially announced his retirement on January 22, 2018, and handed over the reins to Br. Anthony Swamy Pancas.

However, on the 1^st of February, a secondary school coordinator delivered TSC’s decision to re-appoint retired officer Ume to the principal’s position.

TSC chairman, Baran Sori, says the breaching of the professional and personnel code of conduct has brought distrust, shame, disrespect and ridicule to the teaching profession.

“Such behaviour will not be tolerated and teachers caught in such actions shall be suspended without pay and terminated from the Teaching Service,” warns Sori.

“I remind teachers that parents have very high trust on you to take responsibility to care, protect and teach their children in your charge and any action contrary to this trust is bad for the teaching profession.

“Resumption of duties has always been a problem for some years with over 15,000 teachers not resuming duties on time during the resumption week,” says Teaching Service Commission chairman, Baran Sori.

“I warn teachers that the Commission will strictly manage teachers’ performance this year through Resumption of Duty Summary Sheet.

This was the promise from TSC chairman Baran Sori in his 2017 back to school message to teachers.

“The Commission does not have money in the 2017 Budget Appropriation to address these issues, but lack of budget support will not prevent the Commission from carrying its legislative roles and responsibilities to ensure members of the Teaching Service continue to provide education to the children of PNG,” stated Sori.

TSC commissioner operations, Samson Wangihomie, says teachers cannot be denied their entitlements and must be paid accordingly.

He said there are already concerns that they may not be paid in full, or get paid at all.

“Commissioner and I were sharing about one province, name withheld, where the provincial administrator said they were going to suspend leave fares this year and we are saying no, it is their entitlement, you pay it to the them when they are entitled,” says Wangihomie.

Alex Tui of Hos Elementary School outside the provincial capital Mendi, complained bitterly that many teachers PNG-wide “are really suffering” because certain officers in TSC and DoE, both in head office and provinces were failing to perform their duties professionally and responsibly as expected.

Tui urged TSC Chairman Baran Sori and Acting Secretary for Education, Dr Uke Kombra to start disciplining all responsible officers who failed to submit vital information to the salaries section thereby causing salary discrepancies and anomalies.