Northern Teachers Leave Fares a concern

Teachers  fronting up education office in Madang.

Teachers in Northern Province will now have to wait a bit longer for their leave entitlements.

This is because the National Government ceiling for the provincial leave fares is much lower than the actual number of teachers in the province.

Provincial Education Advisor, Maino Vegoli said, a total of 155 teachers had applied for leave entitlements, which accumulates to over 2-million kina, however the national government funding is not enough for them all.

Mr Vegoli told NBC news that they have been promised an allocation of 1 point 4 million kina, but due to cash flow problems, the funding has been cut to 1 point 1 million kina, which is a shortage of 300-thousand kina.

"Provincial education division is working closely with authorities at the provincial level to sort out leave fares for teachers in Northernn," said Mr Vegoli.

Vegoli said they have only 1 point 1 million kina, the ceiling that has came from the national government.

But looking at the overall of that 155 applications, the total is about 2 point 2 million kina, total of costs of the teachers leave fares.

''So you see that though the government improve funding but the amount of money coming in is not enough.

"That's why most of the times it builds up to the outstanding.

"So that's one of the issues that we have every year," the provincial adviser said.

Meantime, Mr Vegoli has assured the teachers that they will make sure teachers get their leave fares by the end of this week.

NBC News- Muriel Tovivi (NBC Northern)