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A number of primary school educators are angry over a delay in payment for summer school work under the Ministry of Education's Recover Smarter - National School Learning and Intervention Plan.The Jamaica Observer was told that the teachers were expected to be paid a few days ago. The exact amount was not immediately clear but one teacher said that it was less than $30,000.The programme, which was designed to help students recover from learning loss due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, ran from July 5 to August 19.Classes were delivered online as well as face-to-face for approximately two hours from Monday to Thursday over the period.A third grade teacher at Central Branch All-Age School, who requested anonymity, told the Observer that she was anticipating the payment, particularly because she has been facing financial challenges caused by the pandemic."All of us have additional expenses that we are struggling with because of the pandemic and the fact that we were teaching from home and would even come in for face-to-face classes. We are in an economic climate where everything is increasing and things are now at a point where it's very challenging for us to meet our needs," she explained.She pointed out that teachers made sacrifices to facilitate the learning experience for the students, as they have suffered immensely during the last academic year."We know that a lot of our students never had technological devices to go online during the pandemic, [so] we made the effort to come out and give them as much as we could to ensure that the learning loss would be as minimal as possible," she said.Cecele Smythe, principal at North Street Primary School in Kingston, told the Observer that four of her teachers who participated in the programme are furious about the sums owed to them."They are very upset. That's the argument from all of them, as they took the time out during the holiday [to teach] and they have not been paid as yet," she said.Smythe pointed to one of the teachers with whom she spoke yesterday morning, saying, "That teacher is retired and she took part in the programme. She is extremely frustrated knowing that she came out to assist and nothing has been done."Another principal, who wished not to be named, described the matter as "insulting" as the teachers are only due a small sum of money.The principal also pointed out that some of his teachers had incurred additional expenses such as food and transportation to facilitate the face-to-face classes."Some of them have spent quite a lot in terms of the essentials. The money they are being paid is not even enough to cover those expenses. People had no work, so they participated and they are expecting to be paid," he said, noting that five teachers from the school participated."There are many schools that did not take it up, but the teachers at my school wanted to take it up because it was a way of helping the children. These people are looking forward to the extra dollars and the ministry has said nothing. It is insulting," he said.The Observer was unable to get a response from the education ministry.Last month, the ministry said approximately 17,000 students and 3,000 teachers had indicated an interest in the national summer school initiative.