Primary and secondary school teachers in Bayelsa State, Wednesday, deplored eight months of unpaid salaries and marginalisation in the state appealing to the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to pay the arrears.
Marking Teachers Day in low key at their secretariat in Yenagoa, the teachers, under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) said Bayelsa’s educational sector was replete with crises.
The state Chairman, NUT, Mr. Kalama John-Tonpre, reeled out the problems facing teachers in the state as non-payment of salaries for about eight months; non-implementation of teachers promotion over the years and non-payment of annual increments.
Others, according to him, are abdication of primary schools’ responsibilities by the state government and illegal dismissal of teachers employed in 2008 and 2009.
John-Tonpre among others, further decried shortage of teachers without recruitment in the school system and non-provision of instructional materials.
He said: “Some protracted but unattended issues in the sector are over-populated classrooms, poor standard of education resulting from poor funding, inconsistency and non-implementation of education policies.
“Also, there is frequent disruption of the school system, moral decadence of the youth and eventually the underdevelopment of the state.”
The NUT boss, however, acknowledged some efforts of Governor Seriake Dickson in educational development such as the construction off senatorial model schools, establishment of Teachers Training Institute (TTI) and repositioning the Isaac Adaka Boro College of Education.
He regretted that teachers were suffering from marginalisation in the state and the country.
“The current problems of the society characterised by disease, poverty, unemployment, kidnapping, militancy, injustice, lawlessness, greed for political powers and lack of conscience for humanity are all traced to the agonies of teachers”, he said.
John-Tonpre appealed to the state government to as a matter of urgency satisfy the genuine demands of the teachers in the interest of advancing education for the benefit of the underprivileged in the state.
He said: “Currently, so many teachers have retired and about a good number of teachers were dismissed from the school system with no recruitment of new ones to replace them.
“Consequently, some primary schools in Bayelsa State have no single teachers to teach the children – our future leaders. The issue deserves urgent attention as it portends danger at the foundation level of the education system.”
He urged the state government to reinstate the dismissed teachers and recruit more teachers to fill the vacancies created in various schools across the state.
He said: “Currently, so many teachers had retired and about a good number of teachers were dismissed from the school system with no recruitment of new ones to replace them. Consequently some primary schools in Bayelsa State have n single teacher to teach the children, our future leaders.
“The issue deserves urgent attention as it portends danger at the foundation level of the education system. The NUT, therefore, calls on the state government to urgently reinstate the dismissed teachers and recruit more teachers to fill the vacancies created”.
John-Tonpre also appealed to Governor Seriake Dickson to take up the responsibility of paying primary school teachers’ salaries because the councils alone could no longer bear such responsibility.
Speaking at the event, the National President, NUT, Mr. Michael Olukoya, in his address read by the state Secretary, NUT, Mr. Jonhson Hector, called on the Federal Government and the relevant authorities to consider raising retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years.
Olukoya further appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that only professionally trained and qualified persons were engaged in the proposed recruitment of 500,000 teachers to promote professionalism and effective service delivery.
