A long suffering teacher, who has never received her pay for the past three years, yesterday dropped a bombshell on unscrupulous education officers in the heart of Waigani’s education headquarters who are swindling this single mother serving in rural East Sepik.
Twenty-nine-year-old Nellie Kusari, a physics and mathematics teacher, revealed that on Tuesday, she deposited K1000 into the account of a Teaching Service Commission staff.
The same person demanded a further K4000 to be paid by yesterday. Previously she had paid another officer K300 in the hope of having her paperwork completed and her name registered with payroll in Waigani, Port Moresby so she can receive her fortnightly salary.
A tearful Ms Kusari yesterday reached out to the Post-Courier to expose the scammers in the education department and have them terminated or prosecuted.
Please help me, I spent almost K3000 so far this year to people like these scammers.
Ms Kusari said in a WhatsApp message
Teaching without pay for three years has been exhausting for the young mum, who has a toddler to support and care for.
She made her appeal after reading about students in a Port Moresby school collecting K1 per student to assist their teachers who are facing the same dilemma. She said she has lost confidence in the system and is now pleading for help.
Ms Kusari is from Okapa in Eastern Highlands Province. She was able to provide to Post-Courier a copy of the signed duty summary sheets of the past three years of her teaching in the schools she was posted to teach with other supporting documents.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I deposited K1000 to a staff of Teaching Service Commission who then demanded another K4000 to be paid to him today before 4pm.
Ms Kusari
Ms Kusari was promised her backdate this pay, pay 25, but returned from Wewak Town empty handed and heavy hearted.
I was broken, seeing my two-year-old son crying for juice after seeing nothing in my bilum,” she said bitterly. According to her bank mini statement, last month she transferred K300 to another guy (named) working in the payroll division of the Education Department.
She became vulnerable to scammers within the department and commission and had been borrowing money to pay them. Ms Kusari is teaching Physics and Advance Mathematics at St Andrew’s Technical School just outside the township of Wewak.
This is her second year of teaching at St Andrews Technical Secondary.
A year prior to that, she was posted to Angoram Secondary School in a remote district. Ms Kusari also teaches grade nine mathematics and science.
I’m struggling to survive in another province, as there are no family members to support. With the little fortnightly allowance I receive from the school, it’s really difficult to cater for basic needs of me and my family, given the increasing cost of goods and services.
I am kindly asking the TSC Commissioner and Education Secretary to look into this matter and assist me.
Ms Kusari has had enough, all her attempts to seek help from the provincial education division of East Sepik fell on deaf ears, forcing her to reach out to higher authorities through the media.
I wish to air out my sentiments in teaching without pay issue, after reading on Post-Courier (November 28-29).
I finished my studies in 2020 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Physics at University of Goroka in 2021.
Around October 2020, a group of Education Officers from East Sepik Province went to the school and conducted recruitment for teachers, both Education Studies and Content in Specialized Studies, to teach in East Sepik starting in 2021.
I did show interest by giving my name to them and was accepted.
In January 2021, the East Sepik Education Division sent airplane tickets to those accepted teachers and a big number of us teachers, traveled to Wewak and were warmly received by the Education officers and got posted to high school and secondary schools throughout East Sepik Province.
Despite filling in all the required forms year in year out, receiving Provisional Registration Certificate (PRC), I am still yet to come on payroll.
I did several follow-ups at Provincial Education Office but was always told that my papers are down there at the respective headquarter offices.
Ms Kusari’s dilemma is common across the country where crooked and corrupt public servants deliberately leave out many teachers off the government payroll to prey on them and scam them.
Ms Kusari said she will name these crooks when she hears back from the Education Department bosses in Waigani.
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