MOROBE education programme adviser Keith Tangui says it will cost the division K1.5 million to repatriate all retired teachers to their home provinces. He said hundreds of teachers who served in Morobe were still waiting to be repatriated with some having waited for the last 10 years. Sadly, some passed away this period. Ian Meaea, from Gulf, was one retired teacher who passed away in 2005 before he could be repatriated. He was posted to Morobe in 1977. Daughter Lavinia said her father spent 28 years of his teaching career in remote schools of Bulolo and Finschhafen in Morobe until his retirement. Meaea left behind six children and grandchildren and wife Ila, who is also a retired nurse from Angau Memorial Hospital.
The family still occupies the accommodation at Huonville teachers village in Lae. Another retired teacher, Thomas Bweheni, said there were about six families of retired teachers still residing at the village, including his family. Bweheni, from West Sepik, retired when reaching retirement age last year; he taught in Morobe for 41 years. Although he received his entitlements between August and September, Bweheni said he dreaded the long wait for repatriation. He said the province needed to budget annually for this exercise as teachers were retiring every year and needed to be repatriated. Tangui said unfortunately, there was no money so these teachers were still waiting. “A list will be submitted to the provincial administration so by 2022, once we get the money, we settle this once and for all – a one-off payment to everyone,” he said. Papua New Guinea Teachers Association Mamose president Mark Nanu said the retirement repatriation function from the Teaching Service Commission was decentralised to provincial education boards through their respective divisions of education. He acknowledged the efforts of the provincial education boards but stressed that this long-overdue exercise needed to take place sooner. Nanu said retired teachers were being forced to move out of staff accommodation and being marginalised despite decades of dedicated service. He called on the province to look into the issue next year. The National / PNG Education News Next : Morobe Fode Centre Records Highest Intake Comments are closed.
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