22 Aug 2012

100 Vanuatu teachers to go unpaid this year

9:30 am on 22 August 2012

More than 100 Vanuatu primary and secondary school teachers will not get paid this year.

The government has made no provisions for their remuneration in this week's extra-ordinary parliamentary session, which will be the last before the elections.

The education ministry and the Teachers Service Commission promised that a supplementary budget would be tabled this week.

But a ministry official, Fabien Malwersets, says unfortunately, the education supplement is not included in the government bills to be presented today.

The ministry of education needs more than two million US dollars to remunerate unpaid teachers and pay the allowances of Ni-Vanuatu students at the region's universities.

Last year, more than 100 teachers were also left unpaid.

The President, Iolu Johnson Abbil, is expected to dissolve the House soon to give the 52 members time to prepare for the elections on October 30th.