How FG can stop teachers from going on strike – NUT president

The President of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Audu Amba, has said for teachers to stop engaging in strike action, the federal government must fund education properly. This is even as he said the government should be more proactive to avert strike as no worker would take to strike if his/her plight is addressed. […]

The President of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Audu Amba, has said for teachers to stop engaging in strike action, the federal government must fund education properly.

This is even as he said the government should be more proactive to avert strike as no worker would take to strike if his/her plight is addressed.

Amba started this while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

The event was the Union’s Solemn Assembly, where teachers from across the 36 states and the FCT met to pray and chat the way for a new year.

Reacting to its FCT members on strike, the President questioned the rationale behind implementing the minimum wage for a set and ignoring teachers.

He added that the only language the government understands is downing tools as that is the only time they will call you to ask what is happening? Why? As if they are not aware.

The President, who also reacted to the proposed 12 years level of education, said it will not change anything in terms of delivering quality education, adding that the only solution is for the federal government to fund education properly as against changing the nomenclature.

“And I want to say that is there any change about that? There is no change. It’s the same thing. It’s not the issue of the system or the policy but the funding.”

“I keep on saying whether you give it 6-3-3-4, 12year or whatever, the issue is not that one, the basics is the funding.

“This is so that we avoid the issue of longer strikes and all what not. If you go to our schools, I stand to be corrected, more especially in the remote villages, you will be shocked to see the kind of infrastructure that is lying down there. You will find that people are sitting on the bare floor up to this very present time. Teachers don’t even get working materials. There are schools today, I tell you that teachers buy chalk. Should we be using chalk to write even on the board up to this point? So these are things that are supposed to have been of the past.”

He noted that this could be among the reasons parents who have the capacity choose to send their wards to private schools where they find an average teaching environment.

“Whereas the most qualified teachers are at the public schools but they are not well funded. That’s the situation that we find ourselves in. So, the basic thing is to fund education very well. Not changing the nomenclature.”

The two officiating clerics, Imam&Shyakh Muhammad Bin Uthman and Rev Emmanuel Nama prayed for Nigerian teachers, leaders, kidnapped victims, unemployed youths and the sick as well as for a better year.

Uthman urged the teachers to make themselves accessible to their students, and teach well as well as come to office on time while Nama asked them not to leave their calling in teaching in search of greener pasture because they are doing a blessed work.