Primary School Teachers Protest Handover of Payment of Salaries to LGs

By Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

Primary school teachers in Bayelsa State on Wednesday protested against the handover of the payment of their salaries from the state government to local council authorities in the state.

They marched from their secretariat located at Erepa through Otiotio to the Isaac Boroh Expressway, Yenagoa, during the protest led by the state Chairman, Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Kalama Tonpre, and Principal Secretary, NUT, Mr. Johnson Hector.

The teachers said the local government lacked the capacity to pay their salaries, subventions and other welfare packages, lamenting that they had been subjected to untold hardship by the councils.

Addressing the crowd of teachers, Hector said the protest was a mandate of the national body of NUT to create awareness about the poor condition of teachers ahead of the proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

“We are not against local government autonomy but we are of the position that the salary component of the primary school teacher should be removed from the local government because it is obvious that local governments do not have the capacity to pay primary school teachers,” he said.

Details later…