
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, academic activities in primary schools across some 13 states of the federation may soon be grounded as the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has given states that are yet to implement the 27.5 Teachers Special Allowance up till the 23 of this month to implement the pay rise or risk strike action in their states.
The National President of the union Comrade Michael Alogba Olukoya declared this yesterday in Abuja at the 81st Founder’s Day Celebration of NUT and 2nd Annual Memorial Lecture in honour of Late Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abuja.
His words: “If by 23rd of this month we still have any state that has not paid this money to our teachers, in such state there will be strike. There is no going back on that because this is an agreement reached in 2008, and the entire leadership of the Union agreed that it should take effect in 2009”
States that are yet to implement the 27.5 per cent pay rise for primary school teachers include Cross River, kebbi, Lagos, Ekiti, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Abia, Nasarawa, Enugu, Benue, Kogi and Delta.
The NUT President who maintained that there is difference between the 27.5 Teachers Allowance and the Minimum Wage called on Governors in the defaulting states to keep faith with the agreement reached with the Union without prejudice to Teacher’s right to minimum wage.
He also called on the federal government to nationalize the condition of service of teachers as with other professions, and make it attractive to the best brains amongst the upcoming professionals.
While speaking at the event, Minister of Education, Professor Ruqqayatu Ahmed Rufa’i urged teachers and other stakeholders in the education sector to complement the efforts of government in her strive to provide quality education for the country achieve its target of transforming the education sector.
The Minister who stated that the poor quality of educational outcome recorded in recent years is attributable to the poor quality of teachers, among others, assured that federal government would not leave any stone unturned at ensuring quality teacher’s education and development.
The quality of any educational system is determined by the quality of the teaching-learning process, which in turn depends on the quality of its teachers. The Federal Government in an attempt to address this problem is leaving no stone unturned at ensuring quality teacher’s education and development. This is expected to translate to higher student’s achievement and overall educational growth”. She said.
The Questions remains:
Does that mean our Government cannot afford to pay the Teachers who made them what they are today?
Does that mean Nigeria is too poor to finance the Education sector?
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