PNG Education Secretary, Dr. Uke Kombra said the auto-suspension of teachers from the payroll for failing to fill in the duty resumption form at the start of the school year, is on hold.
According to the education system, the auto-suspension was supposed to kick in on pay Number Five (5), however, this has been postponed to pay Number Seven (7).

​TEACHERS in PNG who fail to fill their resumption of duty summary sheets will be put off the payroll as of April 5, says Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra.
He said the auto-suspension of pay was to have begun on March 8, but was delayed because he was told by the Education Department payroll office that only around 50 per cent of the teachers had their data in the payroll system. “That would roughly mean 30,000 teachers will be off the payroll if we apply the (March 8 deadline),” he said.
“So I have decided to move the deadline to April 5.

Papua New Guinea's Morobe government is recruiting English teachers from Australia and England to teach in secondary and high schools.
The expatriate teachers’ recruitment programme was piloted by an English native, married to a local woman, who is teaching in Nawaeb Lutheran Secondary School.
Governor Luther Wenge said the programme was launched to check the drop in standard of speaking and writing good English of students.
“The guy (expatriate teacher) is already here so we will take him to the school,” he said.

​FIREMEN were unable to save the administration block of the Kilakila Secondary School in Moresby South which caught fire around 3am yesterday, says Boroko Fire Station commander Supt John Ap.
He said they were still investigating the cause of the fire, but suspect that it could be an arson case.
“The administration block was occupied by the school’s principal and his two deputies,” he added.
“The fire started at around 3.16am (on Monday).
“We responded when we received the call but we were not able to save anything.
“This was because the building was constructed in the colonial days and the fire spread too fast.”
He said a staff member told them that some people had tried to burn down the same building last month.

PRIME Minister James Marape has urged the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) to include the business management course as a complementary course in all the five faculties in the university.
Marape said while pledging a K5 million which will be funded by the Government to upgrade the university library to a modern e-library.
He said the funding should help with the renaming of the library from Michael Somare Library to Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare Library, as well as facilitating a modern digital approach by upgrading the library to an e-library.

THE Papua New Guinea Department of Higher Education, Science, Research and Technology (Dherst) is into the implementation stage of an online unified accredited university education system that will give students and others access to acquire internationally recognised qualifications, an official says.
Higher Education Minister Don Polye made the announcement to Divine Word University (DWU) council members, staff, parents, stakeholders and nearly 1,000 graduating students at Madang campus where he was guest speaker at the institution’s 41st graduation ceremony on Friday.
Polye said Dherst had implemented the integrated online system for all universities in Papua New Guinea delivering centeralised and internationally accredited courses at the approval and endorsement of the department.
He said the Council of Vice-Chancellors had recommended to the department the milestone initiative that would enable graduates from universities to have internationally recognised qualifications.

THE United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has offered scholarships to 10 students to specialise in midwifery, says country representative Marielle Sander.
Sander told the scholarship recipients that midwifes were the forefront of the change for women in the country.
“I am relying on you to be the change in the country,” she said.
“The journey one takes to become a midwife is a journey of empowerment.
“And when it comes to reproductive health, midwives knows best and are the champions.”

ABOUT 600 youths in Gulf have been given a second chance in education through the establishment of a new technical vocational education and training (Tvet) centre in the province last week.
“This is the first for Highlands Youth Training and Rehabilitation College (HYTARC) to develop a routine in Kerema and we are excited to take on the challenges, and to start registration and enrolment this month,” founder Michael Goro said.