Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has highlighted that the Ministry of Education will make a payment before the end of this financial year to those staff eligible for a performance increase. [File Photo]

Good news for staff of the Education Ministry as a performance pay increase will be paid out before the end of this financial year.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted that the Ministry of Education will make a payment to those staff eligible for the 2017/2018 Annual Performance Assessment Payments.

Sayed-Khaiyum clarified that following a final check the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts confirms that the payment will be back dated to the first pay at the end of August 2018.

Opposition MP, Lenora Qereqeretabua questioned the Economy Minister on the delay of the payment of the Annual Performance Assessment pay rises.

“Could the Minister inform Parliament when teachers will receive their Annual Performance Assessment pay rise that has been long overdue for over 2 years now.”

Sayed-Khaiyum then explained that each since the approval performance management framework in 2017, individual Ministries were responsible for the performance assessment for each employee.

“To put into context, the Ministry of Education is the largest Ministry as far as the employees are concerned. In 2017/2018 there were 14,244 civil servants in that Ministry. Currently there are 14,027 out of which 13,449 are teachers and 578 are non-teaching staff. So it’s the largest Ministry from that perspective”

The Economy Minister stressed that the Annual Performance Assessment is about each individual civil servant and one could imagine the huge exercise that has to go through as moderation is a critical component of the management system.

He adds that this ensures that employees are rewarded for measurable contributions to the achievements of the Ministry not just based on the perception of their supervisor.