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Kaduna NUT condemns agitation for local council autonomy, funding of education

By Abdulganiu Alabi, Kaduna
23 June 2017   |   4:31 am
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Kaduna State Wing, has said that local councils have no financial muscle to manage primary education with the meagre resources allocated to them.

The aggrieved teachers, who stormed the NUT office in Kaduna, also stated that the local government autonomy, if granted, would result to collapse of primary education system in Nigeria.

• Says it is responsibility of federal, states, councils
• Demands review of teachers’ retirement age
• Pledges to flush out quacks

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Kaduna State Wing, has said that local councils have no financial muscle to manage primary education with the meagre resources allocated to them.

The aggrieved teachers, who stormed the NUT office in Kaduna, also stated that the local government autonomy, if granted, would result to collapse of primary education system in Nigeria.

They said funding and management of schools under the local councils is already suffering due to non-availability of funds to pay salaries, renovate and furnish schools with needed materials.

The teachers also said that primary school funding is a tripartite arrangement involving the full participation of federal and state governments, and not for local councils to shoulder alone.

The Kaduna State NUT Chairman, Audu Amba, who blamed the failure of education system in Nigeria on government’s non-chalant attitude towards ensuring that welfare of teachers is attended to, said: “Primary education, in particular, constitutes the foundational frame-work of the entire educational structure of a nation. It is an incontrovertible fact that any structure erected on a weak and shaky foundation cannot stand; it will certainly collapse.

“The renewed agitation for local council autonomy has made it imperative for the Nigeria Union of Teachers to sensitise stakeholders and the general public on the danger inherent in handing over the affairs of primary education to respective local government councils.”

He also called for the immediate review of teachers’ retirement age to increase retention rate, saying that most teachers get retired when their services are needed most.

“We teachers of Nigerian primary and secondary schools do seek and demand that our retirement age be raised to 65 or 70 years to increase the teachers retention rate in our schools. This will help to check the rate at which experienced teachers are being lost in the school system.

He, however, pledged that once Federal Government and state governments attend to teachers’ yearning by making payment of backlog of salaries of teachers, the NUT has completed plan to flush out quacks in the education system.

“Today in this country, quacks and unqualified teachers are being employed to train our children. Before you are allowed to work in hospital or as a lawyer, you must have passed through medical or law school. But most people who posed as teachers in our schools have not passed through teaching institutions. We will not allow that anymore,” he added.

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