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Chairmen of the Bayelsa State chapters of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), comrades John Tonpre Kala-Ama and John Ndiomu respectively, have charged teachers and sister public servants to have mutual trust for their leaders.
The duo gave the charge Monday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on the occasion of the 2020 celebration of the World Teachers’ Day.
In his address, the NUT chairman, comrade John Tonpre Kala-Ama, thanked teachers for their dedication to duty, adding that the leadership of the union was aware that teachers have continued to play their role as nation builders irrespective of the challenging times in which they operate.
He called on government to improve the lot of teachers in the state, adding that the bane of the development of the nation’s educational sector was the direct neglect of the problems facing teachers by government.
Comrade Kala-Ama identified some of the challenges confronting the state’s educational sector to include, frequent disruption of schools as a result of protracted and unattended problems, non-implementation of teachers’ promotion and annual increment for 8 years.
Other challenges he noted are, non-payment of backlog of salary arrears of 2016/2017, poor funding of the sector and non-payment of the #30,000 minimum wage to primary school teachers, adding that there is shortage of teachers, as well as the problem of inadequate provision of instructional materials to schools, among others.
Also speaking, the state commissioner for Education, Mr Gentle Emelah, and chairman, state Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Chief Mathew Sunny-Goli, promised government’s willingness in addressing the challenges of the sector.
The education stakeholders lauded teachers for their sacrificial services, pointing out that any nation which tampers with the importance of education in training and moldings of its future leaders is headed for failure.
The commissioner and the SUBEB boss reiterated the commitment of the Governor Diri administration to improve the educational standard of the state through deliberate formulation of actions and programmes to make the sector more viable and attractive to teachers and students alike.
The theme for this year’s celebration is, ‘Teachers Leading in Crises, Re-Imagining the Future.’
Meanwhile the state’s NUT secretary, comrade Johnson Hector, has assured teachers in the state that there are indications that the Federal Government would soon put smiles on the faces of teachers.
This, according to him, stems from information reaching the union that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the long awaited teachers’ salary structure and have also yielded to their demand to upwardly review the retirement age of teachers from 35 to 40 years.
