24 Sep 2002

Solomons national school examinations set to go ahead tomorrow as scheduled

6:35 pm on 24 September 2002

The Solomon Islands Minister of Education is confident that the national examination for standard six students will go ahead tomorrow as planned.

Teachers returned to work on Monday after limited industrial action over the past ten weeks because of the government's inability to pay their wages on time.

Their union and the Ministry on Friday last week signed an MOU to deal with the teachers concerns.

A key demand was that the teachers receive at least some of the outstanding wages by today.

The Minister Mathias Taro says they were ready to make the payment today but the Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary, who would need to sign it off, was out of the country.

He says the payment will go ahead tomorrow and he expects the exam to go ahead as planned.