Teachers’ houses being taken over

Caption: Houses in concern.

By MATTHEW VARI

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 (Midweek Chronicle, PNG)

A senior teacher in a secondary school in NCD has asked why certain senior public servants have been living in existing and newly built houses on school land.

Speaking in anonymity on behalf of other teachers, he expressed their concern of the trend of officers within the Education Department having first preference to teachers when in comes to housing.

He expressed his dissatisfaction and confusion as to why seven of the 13 houses built on school land have been occupied by department officers.

Even to the extent of an officer breaking into a newly built house built in the school.

 “These houses were previously occupied by teachers of the school- including myself.”

“When teachers moved out of these properties due to retirement, being transferred or other reason- these officers quickly moved in putting themselves on top disregarding the plight of the service provider (teachers),” he said.

Teachers have no choice but to submit in fear for their jobs.

They have teachers living as far as Goldie River struggling to come in to teach. Their plight has been overlook to a point where moral is very low.

“Living in the city as a teacher is more difficult then living in the rural areas despite what many people think.”

“We are asking the Department to come out clear on what preference system are they using to determine who gets a house built in schools,” he asked.

The problem has been going in other schools in the nation’s capital, from high schools to primary schools also.

Due to this- certain teachers have been forced to live illegally in their subject department offices, because they cannot afford to come in to teach from the settlements and outside suburbs on time for their students.

Attempts to speak with the Department of Education Secretary were unsuccessful, however, - Deputy Secretary for Policy and Corporate Services, Luke Taita, said that the issue has been ongoing for some time.

He understood the frustration of the teachers, though, added that the powers to allocate housing on school land vests in the board of governors of respective schools.

At the same time he acknowledged that there has not been a clear policy to demarcate between the housing of public servants and teachers.

He encouraged schools to build teachers houses with the project fees they collect as the free education policy all K652 million of it is targeted to the curriculum aspect and not to building houses.

The department is in the process of creating a solution to this but as with all similar cases “it will be hard to solve immediately,” he said.