Kogi teachers reject part payment of salary
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) Kogi state Council has demanded that the state government should restore full payment of salaries to primary school teachers instead of the part payment or percentages given to them monthly.
State Chairman of the NUT, Comrade Timothy Ayodele, in his speech at the celebration of this year’s World Teachers Day held at the Teachers House din Lokoja on Saturday, lamented that due to total disregard for teachers, the state government has chosen to be paying them stipends in the name of salaries.
He said while other workers with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are being paid full salaries including allowances, teachers in the state receive less than half of their salary.
According to Comrade Ayodele, the payments despite being meagre were irregular as the teachers have to wait for three months before collecting the reduced salary.
The union chairman also complained that instructional materials are lacking in public schools in the state and teachers not only improvise, but have to use their meagre salaries to buy “chalks, note books, chalk boards, maps and many other teaching and learning aids which are completely not available in our schools.”
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Expressed disappointment over the state government’s attitude to the welfare of teachers, urged the state government to urgently reverse its negative attitude towards education and teachers in general.
“It is only teachers that don’t go for training and retraining; their counterparts in the ministries and departments go even beyond the shores of the continent to acquire modern techniques in service.
“Here, teachers are not even encouraged, rather they are being victimised and their entitlements and working tools are deliberately denied,” he maintained.
In another development, Kogi state Governor , Alhaji Yahaya Bello has disclosed that his administration has approved the recruitment of 3, 700 new secondary school teachers, assuring the commitment of his administration to the welfare of teachers and promoting high standard of education in the state.
Gov. Bello, who disclosed this while speaking at the World Teachers day organised by the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASSUS), Kogi state chapter in Lokoja on Saturday, said the state government is committed to the welfare of the teachers in the state.
