Posted by From Onwuka Nzeshi in Abuja on
The nationwide industrial action embarked upon by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has again taken its toll on vital activities in the education sector.
The nationwide industrial action embarked upon by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has again taken its toll on vital activities in the education sector.
Consequently, the National Examinations Council (NECO) yesterday postponed the 2008 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) earlier scheduled to hold tomorrow, Saturday, July 19, 2008.
The postponed examination is meant for primary school leavers seeking admission into the Federal Government Colleges, Federal Governmment Girls Colleges and other Unity schools in the country.
The examination body had last month also suspended the 2008 Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) which was already ongoing when the teachers embarked upon the first leg of the strike in protest of poor conditions of service.
Both postponements were apparently to avoid conducting the examination under a tense atmosphere moreso when the striking teachers constitute the bulk of invigilators and supervisors for such examinations.
Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Promise Okpala at an interaction with education corresponsdents in Abuja, disclosed that the postponement of the NCEE will remain until further notice and advised state ministries of education, school head-teachers to take note of the development, adding that a new date for the examination will be communicated to them in due cause.
Okpala also urged parents to ignore any other conflicting information and avoid releasing their children and wards to go in search of examination centres tomorrow.Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Teachers has accused the Federal Government of marginalisation and promotion of double standards on issues concerning teachers in the country. The union expressed dismay that the issue of federalism and constitutional impediments being invoked to stall teachers' demand for an enhanced pay would not have arisen if the demand was being made by politicians and other favoured class of workers in the economy.
Rising from a meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC), the union said that the battle for the Teachers Salary Structure has gone beyond human understanding and therefore declared that every teacher in Nigeria should embark on ‘serious fasting and prayers on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 so as to invite the Almighty God to prevail and intervene in this matter'.
The union urged all teachers throughout the federation to remain at home and continue the strike until further notice, but enjoined them to participate in what it described as a ‘ crucial spiritual exercise' designed to break all opposition to the implementation of the Teachers Salary Structure.
In a communique released at the end of the meeting , the NUT expressed disappointment at the ‘rigid' posture of the Federal Government and its seeming penchant to renege on an earlier agreement to implement the new salary structure. The uniuon argued that contrary to held opinions, other sectors of the nation's workforce have had peculiar occupational allowance approved for them without recourse to constitutionalism or federalism.
'Such sectors as nursing, medical and health workers, tertiary educational institutions, judiciary workers, oil and gas sector workers , just to mention a few, are cases in point. It is most disturbing to the National Excutive Council of NUT that the nation's leaders remain totally apathetical to the plightof teachers. Whereas the National Revenue and Fiscal Mobilisation Commission will statutorily fix and recommend salaries and allowances for political public office holders and have them implemented across the nation for all tiers of government and their officials without recourse to federalism and states' ability to pay or consideration of imposition on states and local governments, those of teachers arte treated as issues for undue legalistic debate on the basis of the taunted federalism and deregulation," the union leaders said.
The teachers reminded the Federal Governmenbt and all those against enhanced pay for teachers that education remains paramount, universal and a sine qua non for nation building, national development , the actualisation of the Millennium Development Goals and the Education For All (EFA) Goals, adding that the Seven Point Agenda of the present governm,ent would remain a mirage if teachers welfare continues be undermined.