Union wants Tuition Fee Free Audits from Education Department

THE Education Department has been tasked to produce audits for the government’s 2014 tuition fee free for all schools in the country.

The Papua New Guinea Teachers Association general secretary Ugwalubu Mowana wants the department to publically come out in the media and tell the country the names of schools that have received their fees, including those schools that have dormant accounts in the previous year.

He told Post-Courier over the weekend that this list should complement the 2015 list of audit for tuition fees and should be ready for the academic year that begins in the first week of February.

Mr Mowana says although these funds are safe in the banks, schools need to know if they are receiving fees and those that have issues with bank accounts also need to be notified for the purposes of fixing their accounts.

Towards the end of last year, the Education Department released a media statement stating that more than 3000 schools throughout the country have not received their tuition fees due to lack of action from the provinces.

The department has also asked all provincial education boards to supply all tuition fee free data to the department by end of this month (January).

Also over the weekend, the general secretary also raised concerns on 2014-2016 teachers’ salary fixation agreement between the PNGTA and the Education Department Teaching Services Commission.

Mr Mowana wants the government to honour its commitment and award its teachers the 10 per cent awards promised under the agreement by paying teachers on the first pay day of 2015.

This agreement has been breached by paying authorities in 2014 and teachers have cried foul over this outstanding issue.