Posted by From BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
The Federal Government on Wednesday tendered its unreserved apology to the parents and students in public schools 'whose daily lives and school programmes have been disrupted," during the nation-wide strike action.
The Federal Government on Wednesday tendered its unreserved apology to the parents and students in public schools 'whose daily lives and school programmes have been disrupted," during the nation-wide strike action.
Government also noted with concern the need to enhance the take-home pay of teachers and, therefore, reaffirmed its commitment to improve teachers' welfare with a view to meeting their demands.
Towards this end, it resolved to make respective governments at the state and local levels to commence dialogue with their state teachers unions, while the Federal Ministry of Education will similarly engage teachers in its school on the same mission.
In a communiqué, after a consultative meeting of representatives of the federal and state governments to discuss the on-going industrial action by teachers in the country, chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, government says the industrial action was reviewed and expressed concern at its negative effects on the educational system.
According to the communiqué, rather than creating a separate teachers' salary scale, the teachers would be compensated in accordance with the peculiarities of their job-related teaching profession as identified by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, which is the body statutorily charged with the responsibility of making recommendations on such matters.
The meeting noted that primary and secondary education was on the Concurrent Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution, stressing: 'While the states and local governments have primary responsibility for setting and maintaining standards of education throughout the federation."
Accordingly, the communique resolved that 'each tier of government is responsible for issues relating to conditions of service and compensation of teachers in their employ," while urging the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) to consider the disruptive effect of their industrial action on the education sector, the school children and their families, and to resume work immediately.
The meeting which was attended by the ministers of finance, education, and labour, the Head of Service of the Federation, the Secretary, National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission and representatives of 19 states of the federation and their commissioners, also urged the teachers unions to positively respond to the offer by the states to a constructive dialogue.