Teachers engaged by the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) during the administration of former Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano have protested their sack at the House of Assembly.
According to them, they were recently converted to permanent staff in state schools but were sacked by Governor Chukwuma Soludo without reason.
The protesters, who displayed placards with various inscriptions, barricaded the entrance of the House of Assembly in Awka.
Some of the placards read: “Give us back our job”; “Why terminate our appointments after seven months of work without pay?”; “We met the criteria, we were duly employed, Please reinstate us”.
Their spokesperson, Uche Eze, appealed to Soludo to reconsider his position on their termination. He also called on the legislature to prevail on the executive to reinstate their jobs.
He said: “We are teachers engaged by the PTA to address the acute shortage of teachers in state primary and secondary schools. Some of us had worked for over 10 years before the last administration decided to hold a recruitment and conversion exercise to make us permanent staff.
“About 1,000 of us were shortlisted and we got our appointment letters in November 2021 to resume fully. But, for over seven months, we have not been paid, and we have just been told that our appointments have been terminated.
“We were asked to go and re-apply in the ongoing online teachers’ recruitment. This is not fair, we were not paid off and we are stranded because they are sending us back to the labour market after we were duly employed.
“We are appealing to speaker of the House to intervene and save our jobs.”
Speaker of the House Uche Okafor promised to discuss the matter with the governor. “We have heard your complaints and appeals. As your representatives in the Assembly, we are your ears and mouth piece, so whatever affects you, affects us.
“I assure you that we will take this matter to the governor and discuss it so that you get that which is duly yours,” he assured the protesters.