The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Edo teachers

  • ‘Edo teachers got 27.5% TSA in 2013’

    The Edo State Government has said teachers have been enjoying the 27.5% Teachers’ Special Allowance (TSA) since 2013.

    A statement yesterday in Benin, the state capital, said: “The Edo State Government wishes to correct a statement erroneously published to the effect that the state government has approved a 27.5 per cent Teachers’ Special Allowance.

    “It is on record that the state government had approved the 27.5 per cent TSA since June 2013 and teachers in the state had been enjoying the special allowance for over 18 months.

    “However, the state government has approved the 10 per cent additional relativity increase in the basic salaries of teachers.

    “Also, the governor has directed the Chairman of Ovia North East Local Government Area to pay the November and December 2013 salaries of teachers in the employ of the local government who were transferred out of the local government area due to over-staffing. It will be paid in four equal instalments.”

     

  • Edo promotes 1,130 teachers

    Edo State Government said it has released the promotion of about 1,130 teachers and non teaching staff at Junior Secondary Schools across the state.

    The Executive Chairman of SUBEB, Prince Stephen Alao, who disclosed this at a press briefing on Friday, said the promotion letters were already signed and ready for collection at the various Local Government Education Authority.

    Alao expressed hope that the promotion would be an impetus for the teachers to give more in their collective responsibility of educating the children.

    He thanked the teachers for their patience while the process of releasing the promotion lasted.

    The SUBEB boss said over 120 contracts covering the 192 wards in the state have been awarded since the new board was constituted.

    He stated that the contracts included construction of new blocks of classrooms, reconstruction and renovation of existing classroom blocks and supply of furniture to the schools.

    He said contractors were warned against doing shoddy jobs in the state.

  • Edo teachers: we won’t write competency test

    Edo teachers: we won’t write competency test

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Edo State said yesterday that its members would not sit for any competency test conducted by the government.

    The Chairman, Mike Uhunmwangho, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin, said NUT members would not sit for any test because a court had restrained the government from conducting the test.

    “The next court sitting comes up on April 12 in Akure, Ondo State,” he said.

    Uhunmwangho said those who sat for the assessment test were not teachers but government officials.

    “Those of them who went for the test are commissioners, including other government officials.

    “We are not going to write any test, even if given a second chance,” Uhunmwangho said.

    Governor Adams Oshiomhole, while receiving the report of the Teachers Assessment Committee on April 2, said the test was compulsory.

    Oshiomhole said any public school teacher, who had not taken the assessment test would not remain on the payroll of the government.

    He added: “There is no stopping the teachers’ assessment test.”

    The governor said the government would conduct another assessment test for those who were yet to sit for the test.

    The governor gave the teachers two weeks to comply.

    Uhunmwangho said the NUT was waiting for the government to sack those who did not take the test.

    “It will be a world headline that the Edo State Government sacked about 17,000 teachers in primary and secondary schools because of their refusal to write an assessment test.

    “He already sacked 925 teachers.

    “Why are Nigerians not asking that the same measure be used for other workers on the state’s payroll?

    “Why is it that it is only teachers that are affected because all the workers in Edo State participated in the biometrics?

    “If he believes he cannot follow the law that brought him into power, we leave the issue to the people who know the law better,” Uhunmwangho said.

    He added that there were no chairs, tables and laboratories in most of the renovated schools in the state.

  • Edo teachers dare govt over competency test

    Edo teachers dare govt over competency test

    The Edo Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) said on Thursday that its members would not seat for any competency test conducted by the state government.

    The Chairman of the chapter, Mr Mike Uhunmwangho disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin.

    Uhunmwangho said that NUT members would not seat for any test because a court had restrained the Edo state government  from conducting the test.

    “The next court sitting on the matter comes up on April 12 in Akure,” he said.

    Uhunmwangho said that those who sat for the recently-conducted assessment test were not teachers but government officials.

    “Those of them who went for the test are commissioners, including other government officials.

    “We are not going to write any test, even if given a second chance,” Uhunmwangho said.

    NAN reports that Gov. Adams Oshiomhole, while receiving the report of the Teachers Assessment Committee on April 2, said that the test was compulsory for all teachers.

    Oshiomhole said any public school teacher, who had not taken the assessment test would not remain on the payroll of the government.

    He added that: “there is no stopping the teachers’ assessment test”.

    The governor stressed that the government would conduct another assessment test for those who were yet to seat for the test.

    The governor, however, gave the teachers two weeks within which to comply.

    Uhunmwangho said the NUT was waiting for the government to sack those who did not take the test.

    “It will be a world headline that the Edo State Government sacked about 17,000 teachers in the state pubic primary and secondary schools because of their refusal to write an assessment test.

    “He had already sacked 925 teachers.

    “Why are Nigerians not asking that the same measure be use for other workers on the state’s payroll?

    “Why is it that it is only teachers that are affected because it was all the workers in Edo state that participated in the state organised biometrics?

    “If he believes that he cannot follow the law that brought him into power, we leave the issue to the people who know the law better,” Uhunmwangho said.

    He added that there were no chairs, tables and laboratories in most of the renovated schools in the state.

    He added that those were pressing issues that needed to be tackled.

  • Edo teachers’ test holds in two weeks

    The competency test for teachers in public primary and secondary schools in Edo State will hold in two weeks.

    Governor Adams Oshiomhole announced this yesterday after a meeting with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) at the Government House.

    At the meeting, as observers, were members of the Civil Societies Organisations and some monarchs.

    Oshiomhole said the government had held five meetings and postponed the proposed test twice.

    He said: “We have met over five times and I believe we have spent more than enough time on the issue.

    “This test is to be done in the next 14 days and it is left for the teachers to decide whether or not they want to do it. This assessment test will not be postponed more than two weeks from now. It will not be changed and it will be the final.

    “Why I am allowing myself more time is to enable the committee we have put up to have enough time as regards the procedure or method they are going to adopt in the assessment.

    “The assessment will establish the teachers with the basic knowledge and those who don’t have and for those who have, appropriate training will be designed for them.

    “We cannot allow, even for a day, for bad teachers to poison the minds of our children. Everybody is looking for escape routes, but the poor who are trapped have no option.

    “The purpose of the assessment is to separate the quacks from the genuine ones, then we can embark on training and retraining.

    “Those who can be retrained will be retrained and those who cannot be trained will be asked to quit the system. ”

    Oshiomhole called on teachers to reflect on the dismal performance of students in the last WAEC/NECO examination.

    The President of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), represented by the Deputy National President, Olu Abiola, praised the governor for his achievements in the education sector.

    He, however, said the competency test has a professional flaw, adding that teaching is a service and not a product industry and competency test to an average worker is sustainable at the level of appointment.

    Abiola said he would report back to the NUT President on the outcome of the meeting before the union takes its final decision on the matter.

  • Edo teachers wear black to classes

    Public school teachers in Edo State have resorted to wearing black to classes to protest the competency test being fostered on them by the government.

    The teachers said they were also protesting the lack of teaching facilities.

    Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) State Chairman Mike Uhunmwangho said the decision to wear black was to protest the “bastardisation” of the education sector and the constant humiliation and travail public school teachers face in the hands of the administration.

    He added that the dress code was compulsory for all primary school teachers.

    “We are wearing black in protest. The government is vandalising and bastardising the education sector. We pray that the sector does not die,” he said.

    Uhunmwangho said teachers had decided not to participate in the exercise even if the government insists the test must go on.

    Governor Adams Oshiomhole, at a meeting with civil society organisations, said the proposed competency test for teachers was not meant to witch-hunt anyone.

  • Edo sacks 836 teachers

    Edo sacks 836 teachers

    A total of 836 teachers have been sacked by the Edo State Government following a verification exercise carried out by the department of Information and Communication Technology.

    The affected teachers learnt of the sack when they discovered that their names were missing from the December salary voucher.

    Those sacked were found to have overstayed, mentally unstable, physically blind and have falsified their age and credentials.

    A man who gave his name as Osahon said his wife was affected.

    The state Commissioner for Basic Education, Patrick Aguinede, who confirmed the sack, said those affected were certified by the ICT after the screening.

    He said those that have overstayed in service gave a scenario that the state government could not recruit new teachers.

    “The teachers were found to have stayed above 35 years. Some were physically blind, some manipulated their results and age which later showed they finished school before they were born,” the commissioner stated.