By William Madouk
Payment of teachers’ salaries for the month of October has begun in Central Equatoria State.
The National Ministry of General Education dispatched a salary overseeing committee to screen the payroll for ghost names and eliminate the names of unclassified staff.
According to the state Education Ministry, an amount of SSP 793, 919,665 million has been deposited in the docket to cater for salary, operation cost and logistics just to mention but a few.
Mr. Cirisio Zakaria Lado, the state minister of Education, said tutors in his state staged a strike over unpaid salary arrears but he managed to lure them to resume teaching.
“Today, we are announcing that payment of the October salaries for counties and the state ministry has begun and everyone is going to receive his/her salary,” said Cirisio.
“The issue of salaries brought so many problems to the extent that some schools in CES laid down their tools but we sat with and pleaded with them to resume teaching, which they did,” he added.
So far, civil servants have not received their salaries for almost 10 months across the country.
Mr. Cirisio also appeals to teachers to receive one month’s salary as the government work to clear the remaining salary arrears.
For his part, Samuel Dem Marier, the director general at the National Ministry of Education, who doubles as the chair of the payment committee said their role was to scrutinize the paysheet.
“The committee was constituted by Hon. Minister Madam, Awut Deng, she tasked me with this obligation to lead the team to the CES Ministry of Education so that we monitor the payment,” said Marier.
“Indeed, the mission was a very educative kind of mission, we share some mistakes that happen here and there in payroll that need to be corrected after correcting them and that’s why today we want to start the payment,” he noted.
Mr. Marier revealed that the highest grade, which is grade 1 will receive SSP 183,511 and grade 14 in the bottom will receive SSP 39,090.
“The one month that has been released is to be paid accordingly, and according to the adjustment we have done in a payroll which will be signed into the paysheet,” he announced.
Besides, he added that the committee members will oversee the payment until the last teacher is paid to enable them to detect and eliminate ghost names from payrolls.
Recently, teachers in Central Equatoria State conducted a sit-down strike over unpaid salary arrears, leading to the closure of the learning institution.
However, the state government intervened and urged educators to resume as they seek solutions for their demands.