Plateau State pupils are roaming the streets. Weeds are taking over their schools’ premises because of the protracted strike (now six months old) by their teachers over the minimum wage. YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU examines the causes and effects of the crisis.
All is not well with the teaching profession in Plateau State. Teachers have spent more time outside the classrooms in the past five years. This is largely due to frequent strikes by them over welfare issues.
At the moment, teachers in state-owned primary and secondary schools have been out of the classrooms since May, due to the strike declared by local government workers’ union – the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Plateau State chapter. All appeals to get them back to work failed as they insisted that something concrete must be done about the 18 per cent minimum wage.
The Executive Chairman of the Plateau State Universal Education Board (SUBEB), Mrs Lyop Mang, insists teachers have no business embarking on strike because they are enjoying the best times in their career under the administration of Governor Jonah David Jang.
Nevertheless, the state has witnessed more strikes during this administration than in the past.
Jang himself acknowledged this fact recently while addressing stakeholders in the Government House in Jos.
He said at the meeting: “There is no governor in the history of the state that has taken care of workers’ welfare than I have done, yet no administration had witnessed the number of strikes witnessed under my administration. Something must be wrong and I want to know.”
In his five years as governor, Jang has trained 52,122 teachers at various professional levels between 2007 and 2012; implemented 27.5 per cent teachers’ salary allowance as well as employed 500 teachers of English and Mathematics in secondary schools.
On assumption of office in 2007, Jang was said to have paid a backlog of teachers’ leave and transport allowances to the tune of N636 million, owed two years before his tenure. The governor regularised payment of teacher’s salaries by ensuring promotion of teachers are released timely.
To improve the school environment, Jang renovated 175 primary schools, constructed over 500 classrooms, and distributed about 50,000 plastic chairs/desks. He established 19 new nomadic schools in seven LGAs while 1,395 sets of dual desks, seven tables and 20 pieces of universal furniture were provided for physically-challenged learners.
Also, over 400,000 copies of English, Mathematics and science textbooks with additional 290,000 other books were distributed to schools. The state ensures the 1,033 schools receive instructional materials yearly.
In addition, 67,264 registers, lesson note books, weekly dairies and assorted books were distributed to schools. Most importantly, the governor purchased 34 motorcycles for the 17 LGEAs.
All these were possible after the convocation of several education summits between 2007 and 2009.
However, the current strike is the result of a disagreement over the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage introduced by the Federal Government in 2010. The government told workers it would pay 50 per cent of the wages initially and would increase to 100 per cent if the allocation from the Federal Government increases.
At the end of Jang’s meeting with the stakeholders, it was agreed that a committee of elders be constituted to mediate between the aggrieved workers and government for an amicable settlement of the disputed wage. The high profile committee is chaired by a former military administrator of the state, Rear Admiral Samuel Bitrus Atukum (rtd).
The elders committee held several meetings with the striking workers. The issue of minimum wage was resolved and the government reached an agreement with NULGE and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to pay 55 per cent of the N18,000 minimum wage.
However, schools cannot resume because NULGE wants salaries owed during the five months strike paid.
Its state Chairman, Emmanuel Loman said:“A lot of meetings have been held, but these workers have continued to stand in the way of amicable resolution. The elders’ committee has even gone as far as promising the workers additional five per cent to the 50 per cent they were originally offered, which the workers rejected. They insisted on 100 per cent payment of the minimum wage which we chairmen cannot obviously afford to pay due to continued reduction in our monthly allocation.
“Everyone has been expecting the workers to call off the strike but they came again insisting that the salaries of the last five months of the strike should be paid before they call it off. This, again, is another stumbling block because we operate on “no work no pay rule”. This is a rule NULGE is aware of long before now.”
The issue of no-work-no-pay rule is not a new policy in Plateau State. Medical workers who went on strike for months resumed work without any payment of salary arrears. The same condition applied to teachers of state-owned tertiary institutions who were on strike last year.
However, teachers insist that their welfare suffered a severe set back under the Jang administration, saying renovations and construction of new classrooms does not translate to improved salaries.
Joel Mathew, a primary school teacher in Jos North LGA said: “The present government deceived us at the early stage. The governor cleared the backlog of salaries owed us by past administration and we applauded him then not knowing that he will be the worst. Now, it is clear to us that the governor was not sincere with the welfare of the teachers.
“How can you say you care for teacher’s welfare, yet you allow them to go on strike due to your failure to treat us like our counterparts in other states? For instance, the latest reason for our strike, the governor agreed to pay the minimum wage, but we are on strike because he failed to implement his own agreement.
“A governor that claims to have the best welfare for teachers will allow teachers to be on strike for five good months. What sort of welfare package is that?” queried Ayuba Gyang, a teacher in Riyom LGA.
Another teacher from Jos South LGA, Laraba Joshua, also claimed the governor’s act of solidarity at the beginning was deceptive.
“This government does not care if Plateau children go to school or not. We are highly disappointed because Governor Jang at the initial stage declared a state of emergency in education in the state and raised our hope; we thought he was going to do something serious. He now appear to be the worst governor in education because if he can allow teachers to be on strike for six months, it shows he does not care for education in the state”
Yohana Pam, a teacher in Jos North had this to say: “I’m currently looking for a job. We are not complaining about conducive working environment; we have that already but the governor should know we deserve better pay like teachers of other states.”
However, Mrs Mang said teachers were involved in the strike out of sympathy not because the government has not done enough.
She said: “The truth about this strike is that we don’t have a problem with our teachers in terms of provision of welfare and conducive working environment. The present governor is second to none in the country in funding of education. My teachers are on a sympathetic strike because they fall under NULGE union; it is NULGE that is on strike here, not NLC. But NLC has to join in solidarity; this is the truth.”
She went on:“The issue of salaries of local government workers has nothing to do with state governor because local governments receive their allocation directly through the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs
“Education has been enjoying a lion share in annual budget in Plateau State since the state governor declared a state of emergency on its educational sector in 2007. The records are there to show and the projects are there for all to see.”
Mrs Mang said to avoid such unnecessary closure of schools, the Federal Government should allow SUBEB to handle teachers remuneration.
“This is why I am of the suggestion that if the Federal government is interested in an uninterrupted education system, teachers should be removed from government ministries and handed over to SUBEB all over the federation, so that they will not be forced to join general strikes by NULGE as we are witnessing.”
Mrs Mang also faulted the insistence that the government should pay the workers for the months they were on strike.
“If workers who refused to go to work for months are asking for salary arrears, who will pay school children that has been loitering at home within the period? Who will pay parents who have lost loved ones as a result of the strike? I don’t think their demand is reasonable.
“I, therefore, appeal to the workers to drop their pride and resume work. I want them to consider the fact that the effect of children not going to school due to strikes will be on us adults because if they turn out to be criminals tomorrow, all of us, including these teachers, will face the consequence of mass illiterate children turned criminals.”
So far, there is the state will resume soon even as the first term is already half way. At the moment, private schools are having a field day in Jos, exploiting frustrated parents who could not afford to keep their wards at home because of the prolonged strike.
