By EDDIE OSIFELO
SOLOMON Islands National University (SINU) is still to fill 15 of the 230 positions left vacant after what was dubbed as a mass termination in August this year.
Minister of Education and Human Resources Development, Lanelle Tanangada explained this when asked by Leader of Opposition Matthew Wale through a supplementary question in Parliament yesterday.
Wale said with regards to management level and retrenchment happens on transition process of over 200 staff and off course the impact, we know registration is still going ahead at SINU.
He asked when can SINU expects to complete process for every replacement of management and teaching staff in place?
Lanelle said there is ongoing process and it was determined to ensure the completion of the exercise.
She said with information from SINU management, the recruitment exercise is going well with only 15 positions left.
About 123 academic staff and 107 support services staff are affected by the exercise.
This include 34 in Faculty of Education and Humanities, 29 in Faculty of Science and Technology, 17 in Faculty of Business and Tourism, 18 in Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science is 17 and Distant Flexible Learning is eight.
Tanangada told Parliament recently that at the inception of SINU in 2013, it adopted a recruitment policy that required all staff recruited by SINU to be on a three-year contract.
She said previously staff were on continuing appointment, meaning it has an open-ended time frame.
Moreover, Tanangada said as SINU Council resolution dated June 22, 2015, all positions must be advertised in the open market before the contracts expired.
She said the rationale was to recruit staff that meet SINU minimum qualifications requirement known as MQR to teach at the university and upgrade to a level and quality of the programme that is taught at the university.
Parliament meeting continues today.
