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Gov Dickson Pledges To End Teachers’ Plight In Bayelsa State

Published

8 years ago

May 13, 2017

Mr. Seriake Dickson, the Governor of Bayelsa State, has pledged to end plight of primary school teachers including issues surrounding their backlog of unpaid salaries.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, in a statement issued on behalf of the state government, said the governor had demonstrated his zeal to permanently tackle the problem by setting up a committee to resolve the crisis.

He said the governor had also ordered immediate release of funds to augment the payment of the teachers’ February salaries.

Obuebite said an agreement had been reached between the government’s team and the State Wing Executive Council (SWEC) of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).

He said that Dickson was not happy with recurrent issues of non-payment of teachers’ salaries and had decided to work with the local government councils to permanently address the problem.

Obuebite thanked the headmasters of the various primary schools in the state for their active participation in the just-concluded two days workshop on preparation of vouchers for monthly payment of salaries.

He, however, lamented that the NUT Chairman and Secretary were working against various reforms in the sector.

He said the government had been vindicated by its earlier allegations that the chairman and secretary were being used as tools by the opposition to destabilise the operations of the government.

Obuebite attributed irregularities in the monthly payment of salaries to the recession in the country saying the problems would soon be over.

He said: “However, it is wrong for any right-thinking individual to be playing politics with the issue of payment of salary. It has to do with lives and the wellbeing of the citizenry.

“The Chairman and the Secretary of the union, instead of facing the reality and addressing the issue on ground are playing politics with the issue that affect their members.

“As responsible and responsive leaders, they ought to know that payment of primary school staff is the sole responsibility of the local government authorities as clearly stated in the 4th schedule paragraph 2a of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“However, in spite of the constitutional provision and the National Education policy, the present administration because of its passion for the sector from inception after declaring the state of emergency took over the burden of the payment of primary school staff by taking 80% and later 60% of the entire salary burden of primary education.

“This is in spite of the provision of infrastructure for both primary and secondary schools in the state, which as at the last count is above N50 billion”. NAN

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