PTA teachers ‘survive’ on N10,000 wage in FCT

Public primary and secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are currently understaffed and this has forced the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) to recruit some teachers, especially for the core subjects. Some of these teachers, who on the PTA’s payroll are lamenting the pathetic condition under which they work. 

The story of teachers employed by the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) in both primary and junior secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has been pathetic considering the conditions under which they operate. 

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These teachers were usually recruited to bridge the gap created by the shortage of teachers in primary, junior and the senior secondary schools in the nation’s capital. 

Investigations by Daily Trust Saturday show that some of these teachers are paid between N10,000 and N15,000 monthly, depending on their number in a school.

Our correspondents report that there have been serious shortage of teachers in public schools in all the six area councils in the territory, especially in core subjects like Mathematics, English Language, Basic and Agric Sciences, among others.

And to bridge these gaps, the PTA usually employs some teachers on their payroll, hoping that the FCT Administration would absorb them whenever there is space for recruitment.

But a visit to some of the schools shows that most of these category of teachers have been under such arrangement for over 10 years now, with some of them collecting as little as N10,000 as their monthly take home.

More pathetic is that majority of these teachers are in rural communities, the area where even the government recruited teachers usually refuse to be posted to owing to security challenges.

Narrating his experience, Mr Ayuba Shedrack, a PTA teacher at the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School, Gydna community in Kuje Area Council, said he had been teaching in the school for over eight years without being considered for a permanent job.

Shedrack, who said he obtained a National Certificate in Education (NCE) from College of Education, Minna, Niger State, wondered why the FCT Administration or the Local Education Authority had failed to consider him for permanent appointment despite having the necessary qualification.

“The school’s PTA taht employed me is only giving me N10,000 per month. I am married with three kids, so how do you expect me to cope in that kind of arrangement if not the farming that is sustaining my family?” he said.

He pleaded with the council authorities to come to his aid and consider him for a permanent appointment since he has been volunteering in the school for years now.

Another teacher at LEA Primary School in Kwali central, Ibrahim Rabbo, said he had been in the school since 2011 under the PTA arrangement collecting N12,000 monthly. 

He lamented that government refused to employ him as a permanent teacher despite the fact that he has remained committed to his job.  

“I can’t even remember the number of times I have submitted my curriculum vitae to enable them employ me, but all my efforts have been to no avail. 

“We are five PTA teachers in this school who have been here for some years without being considered for permanent employment,’’ he said.

Abdulwahan Idris, who is also a PTA teacher at the LEA Demonstration Primary School in Gwagwalada, lamented that since he graduated from the College of Education, Zuba in the FCT in 2015, he had been teaching in the school without being considered for permanent employment.  

He said he received N15,000 monthly through the school’s PTA, adding that he submitted his curriculum vitae on three different occasions to see if he would be employed as a permanent staff in the school, but to no avail.

“As a family man, I have to join the casual teaching job with okada riding, especially during the weekend in order to sustain my family,” he said.

At Junior Secondary School, Bwari, teachers employed by the PTA said they were paid less than N20,000, and that all efforts to get the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) to employ them had yielded no result.

Most of the PTA teachers, who craved anonymity, said it was getting more difficult to feed their families as their monthly stipends were becoming grossly inadequate in view of the current economic reality in the country.

They pleaded with the FCT Administration to, as matter of urgency, approve the recruitment of teachers, adding that the current number of teachers in government-owned schools was not acceptable, especially in the country’s seat of power.  

An educationist, Malam Abdullahi Shehu, said it was quite unfortunate that teachers with requisite qualifications were not employed by the government, hence they are subjected to humiliating experiences. 

“The experiences these teachers are going through are psychologically distressing. You can imagine someone with family responsibilities and has the requisite qualifications teaching under the PTA scheme while politicians have hijacked employment to favour their relatives,” he said.

He said it was unfortunate that even during the government’s N-power programme, most of these teachers were not considered. He called on the government to consider such teachers for permanent employment. 

Reacting, the secretary of the Local Education Authority in Gwagwalada Area Council, Malam Mamman Musa, said education involved the contribution of everybody in the society.

He blamed the issue of inadequate teachers to the increase in enrolment as a result of population surge in the territory. He said it might be difficult for the government alone to fill in the gap, which he said made such PTA teachers necessary.

“That is part of the reason such association is formed,” he said.

He believes that the FCT UBEB is aware of such PTA teachers, assuring that they would be considered anytime the board, which he said, was responsible for the recruitment of teachers, would begin such an exercise.

Reacting, the chairman of the PTA in the FCT, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, said it was worrisome that its teachers, who have been making sacrifices, were not considered during recruitment exercise.

He said he would push to ensure that the FCT UBEB considers the recruitment of such teachers. 

“These PTA teachers have been making sacrifices to give their best to our children despite the absence of motivation. I will push to see that these teachers are considered whenever the UBEB will be recruiting,” he said.

The FCT UBEB chairman, Dr Hassan Sule, in a WhatsApp chat with Daily Trust Saturday, stated that the board was aware of such category of teachers and their contributions to learning activities.

He assured that the board would accord those teachers priorities when recruiting new staff in recognition of their sacrifice to compliment the conventional teachers in basic education delivery.

The chairman also commended PTA’s interventions in the engagement of teachers, noting, however, that, ‘’Education for all is the responsibility of all.’’

He said there had been a tremendous progress in enrollment drives occasioned by influx of people coming to the country’s capital and that the FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Tijani Aliyu, was doing everything possible to ensure that teaching staff are employed in FCT schools. 

“It will interest you to know that the FCT UBEB wants to be a reflection of the country’s Universal Basic Education Programme in consonance with the global technological dynamics and best practices.

“The FCT is unique in its challenges owing to its status as the country’s capital. Many parents are also withdrawing their children from private schools to public schools, a situation that is affecting UBEB’s already budgetary provisions for the academic year. That’s where the PTA comes in to support as a temporary measure to ensure that every child resident in the FCT gets access to quality basic education,’’ Dr Sule said.  

He also informed that the FCT Administration was considering the establishment of smart schools in the six area councils of the FCT, where there would be inclusiveness as children with special needs would access basic education simultaneously with others.

‘’Basic education is the right of every child, not a privilege. And this is the only way that guarantees safer tomorrow for the country,’’ he said.