No impact on education since declaration of state of emergency -NUT

The chairman of the Adamawa state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Rodney Nathan, said the state of emergency declared on education by the state governor has not had any positive impact on the state since its imposition.

Nathan said this at the weekend during a data capture exercise of some teachers in the state who have not being in the e-payment scheme of the state.

According to him, the declaration came at the right time as there were huge problems created by the past administrations most especially in the primary schools to the extent that teaching facilities were none existent, teachers’ salaries were unpaid, promotion stalled, and pension and gratuity owed for several months and even years.

He however opined that the present government under the leadership of Governor Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, have a very good intention but seems to lack the zeal and the focus to do the needful as there are no signs of seriousness in pursuing it to the latter.

He called on the government to take all major steps to actualize the dream of why it’s been declared a state of emergency.

“After the declaration, we were thinking much attention will be given to the education sector as in other sector like road, but to be honest with you we have not felt the impact of the state of emergency put in place by the Governor,” the NUT chairman said.

“What we are expecting after the declaration is not what we are seeing. With the declaration, we are still having outstanding salary arrears, we are still having leave transport grand arrears for five years, we’re still having dilapidated classrooms, we are still having outstanding promotions and still having pupils being taught under shed of threes,” he lamented.

He lamented that the government has schemed out teachers in the state, stressing that they (teachers) were expecting to be officially invited to plan with the state government as one of the stakeholders but are turned to be onlookers to merely witness how it unfolds.

“We were thinking the first approach is to invite the NUT since the union represents teachers. We were even thinking we will be asked to submit a proposal to know our opinion on what the government should do during the period of the state of emergency declared on education,” none of this he said, happened.

He stressed that the government should have first taken care of the teachers’ needs as there cannot be a proper state of emergency without taking care of the major stakeholders of the education sector.

Effort to speak with the state Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Alhaji Ahmad Sajoh, failed as he was not picking his calls nor returning same.