Striking teachers in Solomon Islands have been given a boost in their fight to get the government to settle their pay and conditions demands.
George Atkin reports that the Council for Pacific Education the umbrella organisation for all teacher unions in the Pacific region, has given its support to the teachers' strike action.
"The Fiji-based Council has written to the prime minister, Sir Allen Kemakeza, to express its concern aand its desire for the government to consider the teachers' demands. The Council says its members have been stunned by the Education Ministry's instruction to its officers to identify striking teachers, saying it doesn't want to pay them their salaries for the period they are on strike. The Council says it is concerned that teachers have been denied their salaries for the past three consecutive pay days. Meanwhile, both the Education Ministry and the teachers' union, the National Teachers' Association, have yet to annunce the outcome of their meeting on September 6th to try to resolve the dispute between them."
