Treasury to step in after provincial failures leave teachers without fares
and 2026 leave fares will now be able to claim their entitlements under a new pathway (NBC File Image)
The national government is stepping in to bypass provincial bureaucratic bottlenecks that have left thousands of educators stranded without their legally mandated travel entitlements.
Teaching Service Commission [TSC] Chairman Maini Ugaia announced a major administrative directive on Wednesday, confirming that teachers who were short-changed or completely missed out on their 2025 and 2026 leave fares can now claim their entitlements through a newly consolidated national pathway.
Traditionally, leave fare funding is decentralized and dispatched directly to provincial governments for local distribution. However, Chairman Ugaia admitted that this system has chronically failed many on the ground, resulting in some teachers receiving only partial payments or missing out on their allocations entirely.
The TSC will now bypass the provincial financial roadblocks to remedy this. Under the new directive, affected teachers must immediately compile and submit all necessary supporting documentation to their local Provincial TSC Advisors and Provincial Education Advisors [PEAs].
"Upon receiving and verifying these files, the TSC will consolidate the data and submit the claims directly to the National Department of Treasury to facilitate prompt budget clearance and payment," Chairman Ugaia confirmed.
Ugaia said this swift administrative intervention comes with the direct backing of Prime Minister James Marape, who is actively pushing for the resolution of all outstanding teacher entitlements to maintain critical stability and morale within the national education sector.
The TSC Chairman is now urging provincial education authorities to act with extreme speed to verify and forward the outstanding files so that teachers can receive their entitlements without further delay.