THE Fiji Teachers Union is calling for greater accountability and transparency over failures in the Ministry of Education’s human resources and payroll systems.
FTU general secretary Muniappa Goundar said yesterday an independent review or inquiry should be considered if necessary to establish how the failures occurred.
“We would support an independent review or inquiry if it is necessary to establish how these failures occurred, particularly where public funds were paid to people who were no longer employed while legitimate teachers have had their salaries stopped,” he said.
Mr Goundar said the purpose of any review should not be to target individual officers but to identify weaknesses in the systems and prevent similar failures from happening again.
He said administrative problems could further damage teacher morale at a time when Fiji was already struggling to retain experienced teachers.
“The FTU had consistently raised concerns about the loss of about 730 teachers annually and the increasing attraction of overseas employment.
“When teachers are working in schools but then have their salaries stopped because of administrative or documentation problems, it creates insecurity and reinforces the perception that the profession is not being sufficiently valued.”
Mr Goundar said the Government needed to address more than salaries.
“It needs to address the efficiency, fairness and reliability of the systems that support teachers.”
