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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, what I want to emphasise is that, since the Government, through the Ministry of Education, is already sending money to schools for paying those employees, who are not enjoying a scheme of service, why not develop a scheme of service for them and, instead of sending that money directly to schools, send the money to their individual bank accounts, just like we do with other employees? In any case, this cadre of staff are not found only in the Ministry of Education. They are not only in schools. We have them in other Ministries. In any Ministry you go to, you find clerical officers, messengers, tea girls and tea boys as well as gardeners. In Ministries, these people are paid directly by the Government. Why kind of discriminate against those working in schools? When you send money to school principals, it is like you are burdening the principals. You are giving them an extra responsibility of managing these people in terms of ensuring that they are paid. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we know that money in the education sector is disbursed in three tranches. It does not always get to the schools at the same time every year. There is unpredictability on the part of the employees in terms of when they receive the money. They cannot be certain that they will receive their salaries at the end of the month, and that they will continue receiving the salaries at the end of every month until the end of the year. There are times when Treasury fails to release funds. Since this is money for supporting schools, the dates on which these employees receive their salaries also vary. There are times when they do not receive their salaries, especially towards the end of the year. This is because more often than not, the schools happen to have exhausted the money that was sent to them by the Ministries. Since it is not specified as to who should be paid what amount of money, the management of the schools have more often than not, spent money to do other things, including buying food. So, the sufferer is the non- teaching staff member. If we want to improve the whole sector, we need to make sure that their salaries are not used for any other purposes. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if the Government was to agree to this proposal, and if the House was to resolve that we encourage the Government to come up with a scheme of service for non-teaching staff in schools, then the Government will ensure that the money that is meant for this sector benefits the employees, because we have schools which have not employed the number of staff members recommended by the Ministry in its circular. This means the money that is sent to the ground is not totally used to pay salaries of non-teaching staff. Part of it ends up being used for other purposes. So, if there is a better way of managing this situation, the Ministry may end up with savings. When payment of the salaries for these employees becomes constant, they will also be able to access financial facilities. As it is now, they cannot benefit from the many loan facilities being availed by banks because banks have no confidence in them, because their salaries do not come on time. If harmonisation is done across the country, it will be possible for the Government to transfer non-teaching staff from one school to another. I do not want to say that sacking is a way of managing non-teaching staff, but the only thing that school managements can do is to sack an employee because they cannot transfer him to another school."
}