Mr LUGG (School Education) - 2001-06-06
Mr LUGG (School Education): Mr Speaker, I took a question on notice from the member for Braitling recently in this House and have the answer.
The question was can the minister advise whether bush schools are required to use their non-contact time allocation to pay travel allowance and kilometre allowance to teachers travelling to remote schools to provide non-contact time.
The remote school teachers have a non-contact time provision. The provision is the same as that for primary school teachers in urban schools. Because of the distances involved, some remote schools choose to accrue their non-contact allocation to build up a block of time for the provision of teacher release. When a relief teacher travels to remote schools to provide the accrued non-contact time the school or group school council pays the travel or kilometre allowance up front so the teacher has timely access to the allowance provided. The school then, in turn, is reimbursed by the Department of Education and this occurs in all rural schools ...
Mrs Braham: But when did they get the reimbursement?
Dr Toyne: Yes, about three weeks before the end of the financial year.
Mr LUGG: I do accept as fair criticism that some of these payments have been a little bit late, and I have instructed my department to get their act together to bring this up. I understand that those late claims have in fact been sent out as cheques last week.
The question was can the minister advise whether bush schools are required to use their non-contact time allocation to pay travel allowance and kilometre allowance to teachers travelling to remote schools to provide non-contact time.
The remote school teachers have a non-contact time provision. The provision is the same as that for primary school teachers in urban schools. Because of the distances involved, some remote schools choose to accrue their non-contact allocation to build up a block of time for the provision of teacher release. When a relief teacher travels to remote schools to provide the accrued non-contact time the school or group school council pays the travel or kilometre allowance up front so the teacher has timely access to the allowance provided. The school then, in turn, is reimbursed by the Department of Education and this occurs in all rural schools ...
Mrs Braham: But when did they get the reimbursement?
Dr Toyne: Yes, about three weeks before the end of the financial year.
Mr LUGG: I do accept as fair criticism that some of these payments have been a little bit late, and I have instructed my department to get their act together to bring this up. I understand that those late claims have in fact been sent out as cheques last week.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016