Ministry of Education staff will meet Otago Primary Principals' Association executive members today to discuss the problems with the ministry's embattled Novopay payroll system.
Chief information officer Leanne Gibson and other ministry staff will meet the OPPA representatives at the Ministry of Education offices in Dunedin.
Patience is wearing very thin for many school principals and administrators, as problems with the new $30 million Novopay payroll system continue.
In early September, Secretary for Education Lesley Longstone ordered the Novopay Governance Board to meet as a matter of urgency, after complaints from school boards of trustees, principals and school administrators, who had found the new payroll system was a debacle.
The board has identified the key issues and problems with the new system, prioritised them, and is now working on a plan to address them.
Many Otago schools have begun paying teachers' wages out of their own funds in the wake of the Novopay problem, which has left many teachers and support staff without regular salary payments.
Other problems identified by schools were getting transactions processed before the cut-off times, the accuracy of control reports used by principals to manage staff pay and the lack of training resources to help staff operate the system.
There were also issues with the Novopay help desk service - there seems to be long waiting times for principals and administrators calling for information about the system.
Some schools have recorded waiting times of up to 95 minutes to have calls answered.
Ultimately, Otago principals say school administration staff are having to spend too long fixing errors, and it was taking far too long for the ministry to resolve the situation.
Last week, Ms Gibson said 87,119 school staff were paid in the latest round, and each successive pay round had seen a reduction in the number of errors.
She said the ministry was committed to addressing the issues that had arisen during implementation, it had made good progress on improvements to the service and that progress would continue.
