The Papua New Guinea Education Department has received recent reports that over K1 million in Tuition Fee Funds (TFF) have been allegedly misused and provincial education boards are yet to make decisions on the offenders. The department has not provided specific details of schools, but allegations are mounting over the serious offences committed by teachers recently, particularly in relation to the management and disbursement of Tuition Fee Free Education Funds by head teachers and principals as against the Public Finances (Management) Act. “From the reports we receive, amounts being misused by a boarding secondary school or a tertiary institution are often between K200,000 to K1 million,” Teaching Services Commission legal officer Joel Nava said.
The officer said the mismanagement of TFF funds by schools are only allegations. Charging officers are aware but have not been doing much. “Since the introduction of TFF, school principals have been dealing with huge amounts of funds and the temptation to misuse such school funds is very high,” he said. The officers said so far, less than five cases have been reported and there are more unreported cases, simply because parents and members of the community are often not sure who to report these allegations to when head teachers misuse funds. The amount of monies being misused varies between schools. Boarding secondary schools may get more than a million in TFF, depending on the number of students they enroll. The bigger the school, the more TFF funds are allocated by the government to that school. The mounting allegations have prompted the Teaching Services Commission legal officers to carry out training to school inspectors and other authorised charging officers to charge and suspend teachers under the Teaching Service Act 1983 for committing such offences. As a result of the allegations, the commission is urging district administrators to investigate, charge and suspend teachers alleged to have committed those offences. The district administrators and the Teaching Service Commission is authorised under the District Development Authority Act and the Teaching Service Act to charge and suspend teachers who commit offences. Also, the commission has urged the public including students to report any wrongdoing of teachers.
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