The Secretary for Education has announced today the payment of K211 million to all schools in the National Education System while he welcomed more than 2.2 million students and 65,000 teachers in 12,700 schools nationwide to the new school year.
“The K211 million has already been paid as of yesterday and schools should access these funds this week. Schools can use these funds to assist with their operations and also pay off credits from last year,” Secretary, Dr. Uke Kombra said.
The K211 million is outstanding from 2021. The Secretary also announced the further processing of K158 million for Term 1 which should be paid this week.
Despite the economic challenges, the Marape/Basil Government is fulfilling its commitment and I on behalf of the parents and schools commend the government for the appropriation of K632 million for 2022 and the release of the K158 million last week. We have received a warrant of K316 million and are expecting the next payment of K158 million soon.
The provinces which the GTF functions have been decentralized are urged to make sure that schools receive their payments as soon as the funds hit the provincial trust accounts.
“The GTFS calculations are done based on the enrolment data that is received from the schools. Schools that have not submitted their enrolment data for 2019, 2020 and 2021 would have payment issues” Dr. Kombra said.
The provinces that are very poor in submitting the 2021 enrolment data are Manus (39%), New Ireland (41%), Gulf (43%), Madang (51%), EHP (51%), whilst the better provinces are Morobe (61%), East Sepik (62%) and West New Britain (65%).
Principals are once again reminded of every student’s right to education and warned that no student is refused enrolment or attending school for want of school fees.