Maputo — The Mozambican government owes 3.3 billion meticais (about 51.6 million dollars at the current exchange rate) to teachers, which corresponds to two years of unpaid overtime.

According to the Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Fourth National Lawyers' Conference, held on Monday, in Maputo, the payment of overtime demands prior inspection "and once the inspections are finalized, the payments are made.'

Last July, however, the Education Minister, Carmelita Namashalua, said that the payment of overtime for 2022 was almost finalized, which means that the government only owed payments referring to 2023.

The Prime Minister guaranteed that this time the government is paying the debt that it has with the teachers.

"It's being paid according to the programme of the schools. Those who are entitled to the money have already been informed about it. As you know, the process first goes to the inspection, and when the inspection is finalized, the payment begins. We are working to resolve this issue', he said.

Addressing the reports claiming that the salary of newly hired teachers has been delayed, he said that maybe there is some procedural red tape that needs to be corrected.

"Anyone who works must be paid', said the Prime Minister. "For this particular case, I don't have any information yet, but surely there are only problems with bureaucracy, because, from what I'm following, the wage payment is going normally'.

In addition to demanding months of overtime, the teachers in the Mozambican National Education System also demand the improvement of their working conditions since they are often faced with overcrowded classes consisting of over 100 pupils.