James Marape (former Education Minister) sympathized with teachers and blamed the Education Department for failing to work out leave entitlements for teachers on time. He is the Treasury minister and admitted to availability of money - so money is not why teachers have not received their leave fares.
Nick Kuman, the Education Minister, said teachers and Provincial Education Authority were at fault. Teachers are confused and or ignorant for not submitting their leave application before April.
He also lashed out at provincial education officials for not facilitating the submission of leave entitlements.
Cheap politics by passing the buck
Obviously, the two ministers are playing cheap politics by passing the buck from the National Department of Education to PEA and teachers. Are teachers confused and ignorant?
Is NDoE not doing its part?
Is the problem with Provincial Education Authority?
It is ominous that politicians are politicians, not educationists - they get 5 times as much as teachers.
They do not live a teacher's lifestyle and they do not experience a teacher's pain at the end of the year.
Deal with teachers' leave entitlements properly
They should talk about giving hard-working teachers what they deserve. They shouldn't play politics with them. James Marape knows well. This is a problem that occurs year after year.
If I was the Education Minister, I would have summoned the Education Secretary, PNGTA president, all (22) Provincial Education Advisers and provincial education officials responsible for dealing with teachers' leave entitlements to a round table discussion, and sort this MESS out - once and for all.
Sadly, a simple teacher is not a 'talking' Education Minister.
Over to yours, Mr Minister. Stop the blame game. Do the right thing. Until then, the teachers will have to hope that this year ends well.
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POST COURIER Reports By NELLIE SETEPANO
EDUCATION Minister Nick Kuman says the issue of leave
fares for teachers was caused by mismanagement from the provinces concerned,
which is affecting teachers.
He said the Education Department cannot be blamed for not
paying teachers to leave fares.
"The department does not keep monies for leave fares
and leave entitlements," Mr Kuman said.
He said there are some provinces that have not got it
right while others have.
The minister explained to the Post-Courier yesterday that
since certain government functions were decentralised, provinces now take the
responsibility to take care of their own teachers.
The Education Department is responsible for the national
functions of schools of excellence, vocational schools and teachers' colleges.
The minister emphasised clearly that every teacher
eligible for a six-week leave (after two years) should apply for leave a year
earlier and before the month of April.
This is so that their leave fares and entitlements are
catered to in a budget for each year.
"I have directed the Education Department to remind
teachers of that directive," the minister said.
Mr Kuman said teachers are the last people who should be
confused about this directive.
"Educated people such as teachers know about this
directive and should not be ignorant," the minister said.
Mr Kuman said some provinces such as Morobe, which have a
very large number of teachers, must be managed well by the provincial education
authorities and treasury office. Teacher leave fares have been chronic issues
for years but is slowly been addressed by provinces.
Still, some provinces fail teachers but the minister said
authorities are in the current dialogue to address this issue.
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Former Education Minister James Marape's Statement
The Education Department should process teachers' leave
entitlements before the end of an academic year and allow them to go on
holidays on time.
This should be done before December, but when Government
books are closed Education department cheques are not recognised by the banks.
Finance Minister James Marape raised this concern in a
media conference at his Vulupindi office in Port Moresby yesterday.
"We are a Government and we have money all the time
to run this country. The delay in teachers' leave entitlements is not the
Government’s fault nor is it a cash-flow problem in the system as claimed by
the Opposition.
"It is caused by the Education Department, which
failed to work out teachers' entitlements prior to the close of accounts."
He says what happens is when Government accounts are
closed in mid-December all funds of Government held by state agencies and
departments are pulled back into the Department of Finance for the accounts to
be tied up therefore obviously there was no money in the education department
when the cheques were drawn.
He says, instructions were issued to all agencies and
departments to go to finance if they needed to make some emergency payments
based on the main 2014 budget and the 2014 supplementary budget as it was the
only department in operation during the close of business but the education
department failed to follow the instructions.
"It has been a problem for a long time so the
education department and other concerned departments and agencies should put
their heads together and come up with a system which will work better," he
stressed.
"As the former education minister I sympathise with
all the teachers out there for the delay and I’m sure the current Education
Minister Nick Kuman will get his staff to liaise with concerned agencies and
come up with a solution," he said
"We have a whole year to work on the teacher's
entitlements, you don’t come on December 25 crying for leave pay, teachers
should be already in their villages celebrating holidays by then," he said
Meanwhile, Mr Marape says he will issue the first warrant
for 2015 next week Monday to officially open government business for the year.
