PORT VILA, 9th June 2025 – The Government has appointed a team of officials tasked with the responsibility of working with the teachers, or their representatives towards signing a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to end the long drawn out strike currently affecting the country’s school systems and impacting adversely on students’ learning.
The team has a specific term of reference geared towards settling the teachers’ legal claims and ending the 10 months strike so that the teachers could return to class.
In consultation with his Deputy and the Minister for Education, Prime Minister Jotham Napat called a meeting this afternoon with members of the negotiation team to try and better understand the issue at hand and map out a way forward before meeting VTU members.
Based on legal advice the Government will still follow through on its intention to proceed with an appeal to settle the strike’s legality question beyond doubt, but such a course of action will not prevent the negotiating team from reaching out to the teachers for a settlement.
Prime Minister Napat says however that it was clear from the judgement the case had been mishandled from the beginning.
He also says no leader should be using the issue for their own political ends because in some way or other, everyone has a part in the way the issue was allowed to drag on.