The Nation Newspaper

Tag: teachers

  • ‘No fund to payN1.44b teachers outstanding allowances’

    The Federal Government has no funds to pay teachers’ N1.44billion outstanding allowances owed them for the 2011 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) training programme.

    The Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, stated this in Abuja at a meeting between the leadership of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Teachers Institute (NTI).

    He said the meeting was part of efforts to resolve the dispute between the two groups.

    NTI in 2011 trained 125,000 teachers under the 2011 Federal Government MDGs teachers’ training.

    The NUT leadership accused the institute of paying each trainee only N2,500 as stipend for fare and accommodation for the six-day training instead of the approved N14,000 per participant.

    The National President of NUT, Mr Michael Olukoya, had accused NTI of shortchanging the teachers of about N11,500 each, which was the balance of the N14, 000 per teacher.

    However, Wike said he had written to the Ministry of Finance for the balance.

    “The reply I got indicated that Federal Ministry of Finance has no fund now to pay the outstanding balance.

    “I just want to make it clear that the funds were not withheld by NTI as teachers have alleged, but I advised NTI not to repeat similar mistake by getting involved in a programme without adequate cash-backing,” he said.

    Wike appealed to the teachers for understanding and urged them to participate in this year’s programme. He said efforts would be made to pay the debt.

    The minister also said he had also written to President Goodluck Jonathan on the issue as directed by the Ministry of Finance because last year’s budget had been mopped up.

    He noted that budgeting had been one of the problems in Nigeria due to the slow release of funds.

    “I want to assure all teachers that this year, training will be based on the available resources,” the minister said.

    Olukoya said unless the arrears were paid, teachers would boycott this year’s training.

    He said the mandate of the NUT National Executive Council was clear that the N11,500 balance owed each teacher must be paid for teachers to participate in the programme.

     

  • Police arrest Oni’s aide for ‘disrupting’ Ekiti teachers’ test

    Police arrest Oni’s aide for ‘disrupting’ Ekiti teachers’ test

    •TDNA turnout low

    The police in Ekiti State yesterday arrested an aide of ousted “Governor” Segun Oni, Mr. Lere Olayinka, who allegedly disrupted the Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA) test at the Ola-Oluwa Muslim Grammar School centre in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

    Olayinka allegedly led a group of suspected thugs, who threw stones at the teachers in the examination hall.

    Police spokesman Victor Babayemi confirmed the arrest.

    Babayemi said: “As the organ of the government charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order, our men were posted to various centres to ensure that the on-going TDNA is without hitch.

    “Consequently, Lere Olayinka was arrested for conducting himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of public peace at a TDNA centre. He is presently being interrogated. The outcome of the interrogation/investigation would determine what the next action would be.

    “We reiterate that we are doing our job professionally without sentiments. Anybody who contravenes the law would be made to face the music, irrespective of his/her status or political affinity.”

    In a statement, Governor Kayode Fayemi’s media aide, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode, said Olayinka’s arrest has upheld the government’s position that some disgruntled politicians were at the root of various labour crises in the state.

    Oyebode said: “The state government raised the alarm recently that some politicians were responsible for various allegations and protests by the National Union of Local Government Employee (NULGE).

    “It also alerted the public to plans by some politicians to frustrate the TDNA by spreading falsehood and harassing teachers, who already had the conviction that the test would impact positively on their careers. The arrest has vindicated our position.

    “It is needless to say that Olayinka’s physical attack on the teachers was part of the calculated attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his pay masters to frustrate the TDNA and other government policies. Apparently piqued by the determination of the teachers to take the test, he resorted to physical attack.

    “While we hail the police for rising to their responsibility of maintaining law and order, we hope they will, through their investigation, unmask the masterminds of the plot and bring them to book.

    “The Fayemi administration is committed to maintaining the peace that has been the hallmark of the state since the inception of this administration. We are also committed to policies that will enhance development in all sectors. Teachers and indeed workers are assured of adequate security as they go about their work.”

    The turnout of teachers for the test was low.

    Less than 100 of the 6,000 teachers expected for the test turned up.

    At the Ola-Oluwa Muslim Grammar School, over 3,000 teachers were expected, but only 35, including the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Mr. Sola Adigun, and executive members of the union, wrote the test.

    At the African Church Comprehensive High School, Ikere Ekiti, only 28 teachers wrote the test.

    No one turned out in Omuo, Ido and Aramoko Ekiti.

    There was heavy presence of security personnel around the centres in Ado-Ekiti.

    Commissioner for Education Mrs. Eniola Ajayi said: “We thank God that some teachers wrote the test, which is aimed at developing human capital in our education sector.

    “You could see the level of failure recorded in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) this year. This is to tell you the level of rot in the system, which we were able to expose by canceling the so-called miracle centres.”

    Commissioner for Labour and Human Capital Development Wole Adewumi said:

    “We have told the teachers that the competency test is not meant to ridicule, demote or sack them, but to develop their skills and make Ekiti great.”

     

  • Gombe to employ 3,000 teachers

    Gombe State has said it would recruit about 3,000 graduate teachers to improve the standard of education in the state within the next three years.

    Commissioner for Education, Mrs Aishatu Mohammed, told The Nation that 1,000 of the teachers would be employed yearly.

    Mrs Mohammed also said Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo’s intervention in the education sector has started yielding fruitful results.

    She said this showed in the state’s performance in national examinations.

    “This time, we have 906 candidates who passed with five credits, including English and Mathematics, in the recent West African Examinations Council (WAEC) results.

    “You will recall that only 18 candidates passed with five credits, including English and Mathematics in 2011.

    “This development is indicative of more successes in the education sector soon,’’ the commissioner said.

    Mrs Mohammed said the result was also an indication that funds totalling over N6.5 billion spent on education by the state government were not wasted.

    “These were invested in the reconstruction of classrooms and the purchase of instruction materials, and that is why the sector will still witness more success stories,’’ she said.

     

  • Enugu teachers decry early retirement

    Enugu teachers decry early retirement

    THE Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Enugu State Wing, has expressed strong dismay over what it described as mass premature retirement of teachers in the state.

    Chairman of NUT in the state, Comrade Chumaife Nze, made the stand of the teachers on the issue known yesterday during the 2012 World Teachers’ Day Celebration held at Okpara Square, Enugu.

    Nze said they felt that the retirement was not only improper but heart breaking. He urged the Enugu state Universal Basic Education to recall without delay those teachers affected by that “obnoxious policy and to put a stop to it.”

    On the 27.5percent Teachers Special Allowance, the NUT boss in the state recalled that for three years now, the union has been requesting for the payment of the remaining 17.5percent of allowance.

    He expressed regrets that the NUT in the state had written several letters/memos requesting for the payment of the remaining percentage but all to no avail.

    Nze, however, said he was confident that the state government would make a positive response to their request , adding that the total amount involved was not compared to what the state government had been doing to keep the masses happy.

    While appreciating government’s effort in recruitment of teachers particularly in the secondary schools, he noted that there was still great dearth of teachers in our schools.

    Governor Sullivan Chime, who was represented by the Commissioner of Education, Dr Simon Otuanya, had commended the teachers over their contributions towards the growth of the society.

    He promised to provide toilet facilities in public schools in the state, including primary and secondary schools.

     

  • Ekiti teachers, NULGE should sheathe their swords

    Ekiti teachers, NULGE should sheathe their swords

    SIR: There is a Yoruba adage which says: ‘If a blacksmith concentrates his energy on a particular spot of an iron, he intends to shape out an end-product”.

    Whatever write-ups and reports had been done in the past on the Ekiti teachers’ proficiency test and the Ekiti NULGE’s current face-off with the government, however fair or foul the write-ups and reports had been, there had been motives on the part of the writers and motives on the part of those who reacted in various ways to the publications.

    Our motives are the crux of the two tussles at hand which we should frankly examine and determine whether they promote or hamper the main objective of the creation of Ekiti State.

    The singular objective of those who fought for and won the Ekiti State creation, was to see the state, hitherto the often forgotten division in the old Western Region, march forward and keep pace with the luckier divisions of that old order in terms of development.

    If, by that act of state creation, Ekiti division was finally placed to make development happen, how much of development have we witnessed since 1966 when a military administrator, Col. Inua Bawa, took off in the task of governance?

    While Col. Inua Bawa and his successor, Navy Captain Atanda Yusuf, were military rulers and non-natives, only one out of our three past civilian governors, Governor Niyi Adebayo, was able to complete a term of four years. The two others, Ayo Fayose and Segun Oni were, each, unable to do a full term.

    While Governor Fayose had his controversial tenure cut short, Oni was stopped by the court on account of electoral fraud. The situations were similar in their effects –the environment was rendered non-conducive for the goal of rapid development.

    It was as if the ancient Ekiti Parapo War for which the division was famous was being fought, ironically, now by the Ekitis against the Ekitis!

    Perhaps that also is why it should be pertinent today to appeal to both the teachers and Ekiti NULGE who are currently at logger-heads with their government to have a re-think.

    One would not want to over-flog the teachers issue but haven’t we retarded the progress of Ekiti State enough with sheer obstinacy?

    The two issues being contended; the Teachers’ Development Need Assessment (TDNA) and Staff Auditing, do fall squarely into the category of pre-conditions for success in developmental goals.

    Ekiti teachers cannot be collectively bad. So, why must Governor Kayode Fayemi who decided to sift the chaff from the grains among teachers not be appreciated?

    The Ekiti NULGE was not unaware that staff audit was being done and that, reasonably, it should be concluded before minimum wage was paid so as not to incur higher losses by paying minimum wage to ghost workers and dupes if they truly existed.

    In any case, the governor said he would pay arrears at the conclusion of staff audit. Why shouldn’t NULGE reason with him? Do they know that, by their actions, they are dancing to the tune of detractors whose agenda, from Day One, had been to have this new government truncated like the past two?

    • Jide Oguntoye

    Oye Ekiti

     

  • Lagos teachers begin strike Monday

    Lagos teachers begin strike Monday

    …No going back on industrial action – NUT

    The Chairman, Nigerian Union of Teachers, Lagos State Chapter, Mr. Samson Idowu, said that teachers in the state would begin a strike on Monday.

    Idowu said the teachers would go on strike over the refusal of the government to pay them 27.5 per cent Teachers Peculiar Allowance.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria at the end of a meeting, that the state government had not responded to the demands of the union.

    “As at Thursday, we have not received any positive response from the government and the strike goes on,” he said.

    Idowu said the union gave the government enough time to respond to its demand without any positive response.

    He said the union had dispatched a directive to all its members asking them to stay at home from Monday.

    The chairman said the payment of the allowance was approved in 2008 and that 17 states in the country had implemented it.

  • NLC urges Uduaghan to resolve dispute with teachers

    NLC urges Uduaghan to resolve dispute with teachers

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Delta State chapter, has intervened in the dispute between the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Delta State Government.

    The NUT has been on strike for four days over the non-implementation of the 27.5 per cent Teachers’ Peculiar Allowance (TPA).

    NLC urged Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to intervene in the dispute between the NUT and the state Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.

    In a letter to the governor by its Chairman, Comrade Williams Akporeha, NLC said: “The issues at stake have lingered on for so long and deserve your immediate intervention to ensure continued peaceful industrial climate in the state.”

    Public schools were scheduled to resume for a new academic session last Monday, but they could not owing to the NUT strike.

    Commissioner for Education Prof. Patrick Muoboghare said the government has not implemented the TPA because the ministry has not completed the verification of teachers.