NUT issues 2-week strike ultimatum in Yobe
The Yobe state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened to embark on strike action if the state government failed to upgrade the employment status of 1, 240 teachers within the next two weeks.
Lawan Ibrahim, state chairman of the NUT, gave the warning while fielding questions from journalists in Damaturu, capital of the state, on Monday.
He said the “1, 240 qualified and experienced teachers” comprised of 51 university graduates, 1, 134 NCE and 55 diploma holders sponsored by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to obtain new qualifications.
Ibrahim accused the government of neglecting teachers, saying their annual salary increment and promotion arrears had not been implemented for eight years.
He urged the government to review the cases of teachers who were laid-off following what he termed as an inconclusive verification exercise of primary school teachers in the state.
He also noted that the issues and other problems confronting teachers had negatively affected the quality of education in public schools.
“This has resulted in dwindling teacher enrollment with high number of pupils per classroom, thereby affecting the academic performance of pupils in the state,” he said.
“The union will not guarantee industrial harmony for failure to address the situation by Monday, 19th October 2015.”
Abdulkadir Hamza, a director in the state ministry for education, appealed to the NUT to adopt dialogue in addressing the problems, saying the government would address all the issues “very soon”.
The Yobe state government need to ugrade qualified teachers at Primary and Secondary Schools level in order to boost and improve the quality education at Public Schools, and this could help to reduce high rate of unemployment, Criminals as well moving the State forward.