Newly recruited teachers in the employ of the Ministry of Education are apprehensive of further delays in getting their salaries due them by the government and have therefore resulted to holding series of meetings aimed at finding solution to the salary hiccups.

In their pursuit to having the financial matter resolved, the teachers were able to assemble in the city of Ganta, Nimba County where they brainstormed among other things on ways through which they can get to the bottom of the problem.

The one-day gathering which took place on August 2, 2010 at John Wesley Pearson High School brought together about 100 recruited teachers in Nimba County.

During the meeting, the teachers raised several concerns including reason why they have not been placed on government payroll, the delay in getting their three months salaries, among others.

But the brainstorming meeting turned out as a discourse when the chairman of the group who has been in consultation with the MOE took the floor to share his experiences with his colleagues.

Addressing some of the concerns raised by the recruited teachers, their Chairman, Q. Eric Gonkerwon, informed them that after series of consultations with members of the Ministry of Education, he was informed that the delay has been due to difficulties in putting the payroll together.

Referring to recruited teachers as an organization, he said the Ministry of Education has not been able to fully define their status, the main reason for which, he noted, their names has not being placed on the payroll.

He reminded his colleagues of some of the difficulties experienced in time past by teachers. "Some years back, teachers left the teaching field because they were not treated properly with regard to salary payment" he emphasized.

Still taking their memories back to past experiences, Chairman Gonkerwon also noted that teachers were paid about seven hundred (700) Liberian dollars or above that, a situation he claimed propelled many trained teachers leaving the teaching field.

As a result of many people leaving the field, he said, other Liberians who have the country at heart felt the need and decided to volunteer their services in order to fill the gap created in the classroom by their departure.

The Nimba County recruited teachers Chairman told his colleagues that the MOE was pleased with their contribution to the country as evident by their rendering of voluntary teaching services to their brothers and sisters, and added that it was based on the compassion that the ministry saw the need to pay them for what they have done and also offer training for unqualified ones.

After the training, he said he was told by MOE authorities that teachers with the requisite qualifications would be recruited and placed on payroll.

He assured the teachers that they would be employed after the budget which has been mandated by the ministry. Gonkerwon said the new budget for recruited teachers has been released to the legislature, and that the names of 4,800 out of 6,000 recruited teachers submitted to the ministry from the GAC report.

Responding to the chairman's clarification, one of the newly recruited teachers, Amos Sawyer, thanked him for making them understand the reasons why their salaries are being delayed.

He used the time to appeal to the Liberian government to take the issues of recruited teacher's wages very serious and ensure that they are placed on supplementary payroll in order to sustain them and their families and concluded with these remarks "We are people molding the minds of the future leaders of the country."