Nigeria: Government just can’t please its teachers
Primary school head teachers have threatened to embark on indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries. The warning strike is but the latest in a long line of industrial actions by their unions, which have been met with consistent resistance from the government. On many occasions, teachers resorted to strike to express their frustration with a […]
Primary school head teachers have threatened to embark on indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries. The warning strike is but the latest in a long line of industrial actions by their unions, which have been met with consistent resistance from the government.
On many occasions, teachers resorted to strike to express their frustration with a government that has left them under paid.
Whilst superficially the dispute primarily concerns wages, this warning strike action has helped to reveal the deeper issues concerning Nigeria’s patchy human rights record and struggles to meet international development goals.
Educators are calling on government to pay and increase their salaries to match those of other public service employees in the country. State-employed teachers, though constituting the largest proportion of the country’s civil servants, have the lowest salaries in the public sector. They want official provision in the 2016 budget to fulfill an old promise and eliminate the wage disparities.
As in the past, the government was in no mood to make concessions, claiming that the money is simply not there and also declaring such strikes illegal and threatening to sanction those who “didn’t come to their senses”.
While other civil servants were able to extract salary increases from government, teachers’ requests do not seem to carry the same force.
However, we have seen a positive intent from the current administration in the 2016 budget and policies to improve our educational sector, government should tackle the needs and challenges of these teachers for educational improvement in the country.
Ahmed Abdulrahman, Kaduna