By Mabinty M. Kamara
Lecturers of the Government Technical Institutes (GTI) have gone for seven months without pay, Politico has learnt.
The situation has made life difficult for the lecturers, according to sources.
The establishment of the GTI is part of the government’s effort to revitalize Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) across the country. The government, as part of this scheme, established eight new centers in Kambia, Bo, Kenema, Kono, Kailahun, Pujehun, Konoklili and Kabala districts to enable residents in the provinces to access technical and vocational education.
This is the second the lecturers at these institutions have complained going for months without pay, pointing to the lack of a sustainability plan for the scheme.
Politico reported in February this year that the lecturers went for five months without pay. Shortly after that report, the government reportedly paid them.
One of the concerned lecturers who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity said the situation was becoming unbearable for them because they had families to care for and at the same time they had to try as best as possible to do their job diligently.
“This is the 7th month now no payment of salary. What is killing me now are: schools have reopened, my children are not going to school; secondly my house rent is overdue. We are peacefully suffering, all the 10 GTIs across the country has about 200 staff,” he said.
He added: “No subvention for two semesters now and no salary for tutors and administrators for 7 and 8 months, respectively. It's really not easy for our families and the running of the institutions. We do not know the reason for the hold up. MTHE [Ministry of Technical and Higher Education] promised to pay us in October, but as usual, nothing happened.”
The MTHE admitted to the delay in payment of the lecturers’ salary, when reached by Politico.
Gilbert Cooper, Permanent Secretary for the ministry, said they planned to make payment by next week.
He explained in an interview with this reporter on Wednesday that the delay was the result of efforts to verify and place the lecturers on PIN Code. He said even though the lecturers were currently not on payroll, they were been paid from funding allocated to the institutes through subventions.
“We are talking about ten institutions across the country, but they will be paid by next week. The sustainability plan [is that] they are going to be on the government payroll come January 2021 and are part of the 2021 budget,” he said.
The last time Politico talked to Cooper on the same issue when the lecturers went for five months without pay. Back then he cited financial constraints that the Ministry was faced with as cause for the delay.
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