PNG EDUCATION : ELEMENTARY TEACHERS THREATEN TO WALK OFF THE JOB ON BOUGAINVILLE

 

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS THREATEN TO WALK OFF OVER PAY ISSUES

Schoolies in Panguna. It is unknown if they have elementary classes.

BY PETERSON TSERAHA in ARAWA

IF 200 angry elementary teachers have their way, the future of thousands of 'liklik pikininis' on Bougainville will be at stake.

The teachers are truly pissed off at not being paid for their services, says human rights activist Justin Kungkei.

According to Kungkei, a former PNGDF soldier and losing candidate in the recently ended national elections, the 200 plus teachers will walk off in protest at the government's failure to pay them.

Some claim they have taught for the last 12 years for nothing. This has angered them.

While they feel sorry for their children, they also want the Bougainville Government and the PNG Government to recognise their services.

Lontis Elementary students on Buka Island in 2016.

Speaking on behalf of the teachers, Kungkei said the Education Department must explain to them why they have not being paid.

Fifteen frustrated elementary school teachers both male and female, fronted up at the Post-Courier office in Arawa last Thursday to air their grievances.

On hand to support and held them air their grievances was Mr Kungkei who has stated that this is an outright violation of human rights.

“As an activist I am saddened and also very angry when seeing these poor teachers who have sacrificed  themselves for over a decade now only to be continuously misled by advices from their superiors telling them to do this and that without telling them the whole truth,” Kungkei said.

“Some of them are teaching because they feel sorry for the kids which is their God given right to get educated.

These teachers have been told next week then next month and then it has now become years some of their students are now attending universities around the country, they have all the right to sue the education department.

“What the education department should be doing right now is to come out clear and tell them what is wrong with the system that they cannot and haven’t been paid for the past years right up until now, they have been continuously checking their bank accounts to no avail.

“Now their strike not to go teaching should be a wakeup call to the authorities more specifically the education department to do something now and not to waste these teachers time anymore,” Kungkei said.

Many of these teachers teach in very remote places in Bougainville for months, they walk up mountains and cross rivers to come all the way to town to find their accounts still empty.
 

Uruna elementary on Pokpok Island in 2013.