The government is to meet with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) today on how to resolve the impasse over the non-implementation of Teachers Salary Scale (TSS) which is the major grouse of teachers.
The meeting, which is billed to take place at 2:00 p.m., is at the instance of the Minister of Education, Igwe Aja-Nwachuku, and he would discuss with the teachers on the possible ways to avert the impending strike.
This is just as the Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), Professor Promise Okpalla who spoke in a telephone interview with the Nigerian Tribune, said that the proposed strike would affect the conduct of the nationwide examination.
Aja-Nwachuku, who spoke through his Assistant Director of Press, Mr. Alphonsus Okorafor, however, did not give details about the agenda for the meeting. He said it was part of the ongoing efforts at finding an amicable resolution to the dispute that government initiated since last week.
The teachers had, over the weekend, buoyed by the support of the Nigeria Labour Congress and civil society organisations, vowed not to allow the leadership of the NUT to succumb to any move to stop the proposed strike, having engaged in dialogue with the government in vain.
Also , following the decision of the national body of NUT to embark on the three-day warning strike, teachers in the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the Arewa Coordinating Committee, on Saturday night voted unanimously to participate fully in the strike.
The Arewa Coordinating Committee after its extraordinary meeting in Abuja, called on all teachers in the region, both those in public and private schools, to not only stay away from the classrooms from Wednesday through Friday, but to be ready for a full-blown strike should government fail to implement the TSS before the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum given by the NUT.
On the ongoing NECO Examinations, Okpalla, who lamented about the impending strike, said it would have devastating effects on the examinations since, according to him, “it is the teachers that act as invigilators, supervisors as well as other duties they undertake for the council.”
He, however, said the council had plans to ensure that everything went smoothly whether the strike took place or not. The NUT Deputy National President, Mr. Nelson Onem, when contacted on the telephone confirmed that the union would honour the invitation but said it would not accede to anything that would not go down well with the wishes of the entire teachers
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