Posted by By Isaac Olamikan on
At last parents and children of school age in four local government council areas of Bayelsa State where a crippling strike had been called have cause to rejoice.
At last parents and children of school age in four local government council areas of Bayelsa State where a crippling strike had been called have cause to rejoice.
The local government areas where pupils have been forced to stay at home include Kolokuma/Opokuma, Sagbama, Ogbia and Yenagoa.
The strike had been called following disagreements between council officials and primary school teachers in the said local government areas.
At the centre of the storm, we have gathered, were two major issues.
First, the teachers are said to have been unhappy over the refusal of the council bosses to approve Local Government Education budgets.
Another vexing issue which forced them to down tools is the question of the non-implementation of the 12.5% salary increase approved for all workers in the State.
Our information is that the classroom teachers backed off in the face of calls by well-meaning persons and institutions, urging them to re-appraise their position.
Governor Alamieyeseigha worried by the development, according to what we have heard waded into the matter as the strike took its toll and Bayelsa's school children in the four aforementioned LGAs pined away at home.
The governor was not alone.
Officials of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party reportedly stepped into the impasse, pleading with the teachers to return to their beat.
In the wake of mounting pressure and assurances that their complaints would be met, the standing committee of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, met with executives of the union in the four LGAs.
The meeting took stock of the conduct of the strike in the four local government areas of the State.
In the end, the teachers resolved to call off the action in respect of all those who had waded into the impasse, most especially the state governor and the ruling party.
They further added that they had been moved as well by representations from worried parents urging for a truce and a resolution that would see their children returning to their classes.