OGHARA/Nigeria: The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has proposed to embark on a peaceful protest next week.
The Assistant Secretary of the union, Ethiope West Chapter, Mr Peter Oyarisi, confirmed the proposed peaceful protest in his office at Oghara.
According to him, “the union agreed to embark on the peaceful protest after dialogues with the state government which have not yielded any result.”
Mr Oyarisi highlighted three major reasons that necessitated the proposed protest to include the issues of minimum wage, nonpayment of pensioners and non implementation of teachers promotion as when due.
The assistant secretary said that the approved minimum wage by the Federal Government had been implemented for only secondary school teachers by the state government leaving the primary school teachers.
He noted that it had become a source of concern to the union as both the primary and secondary school teachers lived in the same society where thing were very expensive in the market.
He added that the primary school teachers also had families to take care of just like the secondary school teachers, saying that both class of teachers went to the same school to acquire knowledge, so there was no reason to deprive the primary school teachers of their wages.
He also added that pensioners from 2014 till date were yet to receive their pensions which according to him was also a great concern to the union.
The assistant secretary who said they wanted the state government to pay the retirees their pensions , noted that in Ethiope West there was an issue on the contribution towards the Federal Housing Fund which teachers contributed regularly to and to be given to them after retirement, but had not been remitted to them.
He noted that the attention of the Local Government Chairman was drawn to the issue, that the chairman told the union that he met the issue on ground and promised to be remitting every month, which he had not started.
Oyarisi added that the promotion of teachers had always remained an issue as it would not be given to them as at when due.
The NUT assistant secretary noted that the state government had done its best in the education sector, but that there was still much to be done.
