Ramiza Rainaz Ahmed, 22, a teacher at Vatoa District School in Lau, is happy with the budget allocations made to the Ministry of Education by Government.

A sum of $432.2 million was allocated to the Ministry of Education as  announced last Friday.

The allocation saw an increase of $30.6m from 2015.

“This news of teachers getting a pay rise came about in 2012 when I was still in teachers college and at that time we were wishing that it will happen someday. Now since it has finally come to reality, it’s just so overwhelming,” Miss Ahmed said.

Finance Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum announced that Government had made improvement in education and importantly, equal access to quality education for the poor and people in remote areas.

Miss Ahmed said: “We face challenges when it comes to teaching because most schools in these remote areas lack the facilities in their schools, but as teachers we try out very best to deliver the best to our students.”  Arieta Vakasukawaqa

Teacher pay rise goes down well

Fiji Teachers Union general secretary Agni Deo Singh, while welcoming the new salary scale for primary school teachers, said Government needed to backdate the wages for teachers who were paid ED9A grade on $12,360 salary.

His comment followed the announcement of a pay rise for 250 teachers at primary schools from $12,360 salary to $16,610 and the upgrade of 150 teachers to a base salary of $23,411 as announced last Friday by the Minister of Finance, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Mr Singh said this was not a pay rise, but a correcting of the pay system.

“In fact the teachers that were paid $12, 360 this year, were underpaid because the ED9A is the lowest salary grade and the pay level was reduced from $16,000.

“While we welcome this announcement, we are still concerned about the number of teachers who have lost out and we request Government to backdate their pay to the right entry point level and from the time they started their employment.”

Government allocated $6.87million to the ministry to improve the teacher-student ratio by hiring 250 additional teachers.

Feedback:  arieta.vakasukawaqa@fijisun.com.fj