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Why Teachers Should Shelve Strike
July 14, 2008 11:43, 427 views
Dr. Jerry Anthony Agada, National Vice President of Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, is the Minister of State for Education. In this interview with FRANCIS OTTAH AGBO, Agada calls on the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, to negotiate with state governments on teachers’ salary even as he said the on-going nationwide strike was uncalled for
Q: What are the challenges of this office?
A: After being a classroom teacher for many years and rising to be principal, I was appointed into the Benue Civil Service mainstream as Executive Secretary of Examination Board and later as Permanent Secretary until I retired to contest the PDP governorship primaries. Teaching is a rigorous profession and anybody who is able to make a profession out of it can cope anywhere he goes. Having excelled in the classroom, I see ministerial appointment as no big deal and with the cooperation of all stakeholders in the Education ministry, we shall accomplish our mission. The other day, somebody was talking on radio and he said: teachers are the least paid in the country. It is a lie. If two graduates are employed at the same time, one in the Civil Service and the other as a teacher, both of them will receive the same salary. The fact that there is a strike does not mean that teachers have been neglected by government. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, the education sector has the highest allocation in the 2008 Budget, above every other sector. This is unprecedented because it is a departure from the past when Defence was given top priority. The President and his deputy used to be teachers. I rose through the rank of the classroom before my appointment. Teaching is our constituency and we have high regards for teachers. But we cannot trample on the rule of law to solve teachers’ problems. Salary for primary and secondary school teachers with the exception of Unity Schools is not contained in the Exclusive List. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to negotiate or pay primary and secondary school teachers on the pay-roll of both the state and local governments. Primary and secondary education are on the Concurrent and Residual lists of the 1999 Constitution. What this means is that the federal government cannot fix the salary scale of teachers in those schools except that of teachers in Unity Schools which falls under the Exclusive List. Doing that would amount to usurping the powers of the other two tiers of government and at the same time, distorting the principles of federalism. Let the NUT negotiate with their various state governments on teachers’ demands. And the governors would approve and pay in line with their purse. The statutory allocation to Rivers and Benue states for example is not the same. Similarly, the cost of living in those states is not the same. How can any reasonable person want government to decree that state governments should pay what? This is not a military government that can sit in Abuja and order a governor to formulate Teachers’ Salary Scale, TSS. Nigerians should learn to play by the rules and the only way to do this is to adhere strictly to the 1999 Constitution. Government is not saying teachers shouldn’t complain. Since we cannot pay their salary, we have decided to take a holistic look into salary, service wise. We discovered from the past that when government increased the salary of one sector, another sector would go on strike to force an increase in salary. We are reviewing the entire salary structure of those in the employ of the federal government so that at the end of the day, whatever scale we evolve could be applicable to all professions. As far as the TSS is concerned, government can only help the teachers in Unity Schools and that is why TSS has been appropriated for in this year’s budget. This means that teachers in Federal Government Colleges will henceforth enjoy TSS. The TSS provision in the budget amounts to about 27.5 per cent increase from what teachers are receiving. The good thing is that some states increased their teachers’ salary more than 30 or 40 per cent. Jigawa and Bauchi are examples of such states. This is the advantage of the federal principles. Even if the federal government decides to violate the constitution by fixing salary of teachers in non-Unity schools and primary schools it cannot afford 40 per cent increase that is being implemented by some states. Now, NUT wants federal government to issue TSS circular to state governors stating what teachers should receive. And we said no. If we do it, we shall violate the law. Two, if we do it, we shall be de-motivating the teachers of some states who earn far more than teachers in Unity schools earn as salary.
Q: But the NUT said the Minister of Education, Mr. Aja-Nwachukwu who doubles as Chairman of National Council on Education had earlier agreed to send that circular to the states….?
A: That was not true. The minister couldn’t have promised to write such letters to the states because he does not have the power to do so. Decisions taken at National Council on Education, NCE, are subjected to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, for ratification. Any policy formulated by NCE must be approved by FEC. But this very matter never arose at FEC. Teachers are very reasonable people. We are on radio, TV and newspapers asking them to call it off.Strike is not good for us as peole.We have also appealed to state governors to negotiate with their state chapters of NUT to bring this impasse to an end. Honestly speaking, this strike is unnecessary. Maybe because Mr. President, his deputy and some ministers were teachers, NUT wants us to do magic.No. We must follow due process.
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bashir f danladi
22 July 2008 16:59i reason with this hon minister all he said about the strike is a reality we therefore came to understand the aim of this striking teachers is not for good of the country rather is for sabotage.