A group of concerned teachers in Plateau has appealed to the Federal Government to take over the running of primary schools from the local government councils to save the education sector from total collapse.
“The call has become imperative to avoid a total collapse of primary education,” Mr Ezekiel Taddy, Spokesman of a splinter group of the state chapter of NUT, said.
He said that unless the Federal Government intervened, the rot in the system would continue.
“We want to be returned to the Federal Government. Such control will tackle the un-seriousness currently being exhibited by the local government councils in running primary schools.
“Our children are being denied the desired basic education. That indeed, is negatively affecting the nation's education sector. This should not be allowed to continue.”
Taddy said teachers were not being motivated toward optimum productivity, and cautioned that the situation would only get worse with time if nothing was done.
He explained that the situation was better during the late Gen. Sani Abacha's regime, when primary schools were under the Federal Government.
Taddy described the scenario in Plateau as “very disheartening,'' saying that there was nothing to take seriously about the state government's claim that it had declared a state of emergency in the education sector.
“Teachers in Plateau are the only set of workers who have not been paid salaries for three months. This is unbelievable in a state whose government has claimed that it has declared a state of emergency in the education sector.
“The efforts to transform the primary education sector may be lost, if these categories of workers are left to go hungry for months without salaries.
“The situation is regrettable. Here, teachers are paid salaries as if it is a special favour rather than a deserved wage.”
He also expressed regret that a child in the state had not been allowed to benefit from the “acclaimed transformation efforts'' said to be ongoing in the education sector.
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