Following the failure of the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to fulfill their part of the agreement reached with the FCT branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, primary school teachers in FCT public schools resumed their suspended strike on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, over their owed allowances. The teachers are demanding, among others, the payment of their promotion arrears from 2015, backlogs of annual increment and 25 months arrears of the national minimum wage. The payment of salaries of primary school teachers in the country is the responsibility of local governments or area councils in the case of FCT.
It would be recalled that the teachers had on November 8, 2021, embarked on a five-day warning strike. They, however, proceeded on an indefinite strike at the expiration of their warning strike as no response to their demands came from the area councils. The strike was later suspended on December 1, 2021 with an understanding by both parties to meet on December 13, 2021; the meeting, the teachers said the area council chairmen have continued to shun.
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The striking teachers are accusing the area council chairmen of playing pranks and ignoring their demands. This, perhaps, was the reason the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in the FCT, Mr. Stephen Knabayi, declared that primary school teachers in the territory will not return to class until their arrears and allowances are paid. According to the Union, each time the chairmen of the area councils were reminded of the scheduled meeting, the chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) would plead for more time. The meetings fixed for January 13, 2022, and January 21, 2022, both failed due to the refusal of the area council chairmen to meet with the NUT leaders.
The Chairman of the FCT ALGON, Adamu Mustapha, described the decision by the teachers to resume their strike as unfair. He said area council chairmen were making frantic efforts to offset these arrears. “We have said we would conditionally clear this backlog of arrears. But they went ahead to declare strike”, he said.
The plight of primary school teachers in the FCT over the non-payment of their entitlements is also the experience of their counterparts in other states of the federation; suggesting how poorly government treats the trainers of the country’s future leaders. For instance, teachers in public primary schools in Niger State commenced a strike on Monday, January 10, 2022, in compliance with the directive of the state wing of the NUT to protest the percentage salary paid to them. The strike commenced on the same day they were expected to resume for the second term of the academic session.
The incessant strikes by teachers in the FCT public primary schools certainly have their negative consequences that will be suffered mainly by the pupils in such schools. For example, this group of primary school pupils in the FCT that spend more time at home than they attend school is expected to learn the same curriculum contents and write the same terminal examinations with their counterparts in private schools within the FCT as well as other public primary schools in states where pupils do not experience strikes by teachers. Yet, these frequent strikes by FCT teachers are happening to pupils whose learning activities were recently slowed down and hampered by the COVID-19.
Besides, the government should not and cannot afford to joke with the welfare of those saddled with the responsibility of giving basic intellectual and moral training to young citizens it expects to become future leaders of the country. The poor treatment of teachers that has seemingly become a norm in the three tiers of government puts the future of the country and of the next generation of leaders at stake. Thus, the narrative about teachers being owed their legitimate entitlements for years has to change.
While we commend the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdullahi Adamu Candido and the AMAC branch of the NUT for reaching a workable written agreement for the payment of the arrears owed teachers, which led to the suspension of the strike in AMAC, we encourage other area council chairmen in the FCT to also reach an agreement with teachers so that the strike could be suspended for pupils to resume classes. We further urge the chairmen to honour every pact signed with teachers. Where the chairmen renege on their agreements again, Daily Trust calls on the FCT minister and the federal government to intervene and deduct from the source what is due to teachers as entitlements in the affected area councils. Education is a basic right of the Nigerian child.
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