22 Aug 2011

Vanuatu schools may use fees grants to pay outstanding teachers' wages

3:35 pm on 22 August 2011

Vanuatu schools are threatening to use their fee allowances to pay the salaries of teachers who haven't been paid for the past eight months.

Over one hundred teachers have not been paid this year.

The grants, from the government and donor partners, are primarily to cover fees and fulfil the commitment to free education.

But our correspondent says principals are saying teachers can no longer wait for their salaries.

The minister of education, Marcelino Pepite, has confirmed the government needs over 200 million vatu, or more than two million US dollars, to pay them.

Parliament was to consider a supplementary budget at an extra-ordinary meeting last Friday, but that session was closed by the Speaker after ten minutes on the grounds the government hadn't followed standing orders correctly.