Public school teachers in American Samoa have been asking when they can expect to receive pay raises under the recently passed bill to reclassify teacher salaries.
Three weeks after the bill landed on his desk, Governor Togiola Tulafono has still not signed it.
The most significant change that the Fono made in the bill was to grant the teacher salary increases annually instead of every two years as the governor had proposed.
The governor explained that biannual salary increases would give ample opportunity for each teacher's performance to be monitored.
He also says the increases amount to the equivalent of three pay increments under the current pay scheme.
Togiola says that over an 11 year period, under the new salary reclassification plan, teachers will receive salaries that are 150 percent higher than those paid to their non teaching public service colleagues.
