The National Teachers Institute (NTI) has described as “unfounded” the accusation levelled against it which claimed that the institute short-changed teachers by paying them N2, 500 each, instead of the budgeted N14, 000.
The teachers, under their association, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), had alleged that they had been underpaid to the tune of N1.437 billion as allowances for the retraining of teachers conducted by NTI under the 2011 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programme.
But NTI Director-General, Dr. Aminu Ladan Sharehu, debunked the teachers’ claim at a meeting summoned by the Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, saying that the teachers were underpaid “because the budget for the fourth quarter of 2011 were not released and we intimated the federal ministry of education.”
He explained that when the budget for the fourth quarter was not released, the institute decided to use the balance of N300 million from the third quarter to pay each participating teacher N2, 500 instead of leaving them to their fate.
Dr. Sharehu expressed regrets that the NUT leadership rushed to the press to level the allegation against the institute when, in actual fact, the situation had been made clear to them.