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Tag: NUT

  • Secondary school teachers pull out of NUT

    Some Secondary School teachers in Kwara say they are pulling out of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) due to the difference in their aspirations.

    The teachers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), also hinged their action on the basis of different employers.

    Mallam Jimoh Daudu, the chairman of ASUSS made this revelation at a lecture organised to mark the 2020 World Teachers Day on Monday in Ilorin.

    Daudu said that their membership of the NUT was “a marriage of inconvenience’’, hence the need to split out to better agitate and make the demand for their peculiar challenges.

    “ASUSS belongs to the state government while NUT belongs to Local Government Councils and Federal Government.

    “So, it is a marriage of inconvenience.

    “If there is a problem within the state setting and you have somebody that is leading you, not working with the state, then automatically the state government will turn it down.

    “But when we have somebody working within us and he is a state worker, whatever he says will be the right thing.

    “The employers are different.

    “NUT members are predominantly employed by local government councils and the federal government while states pay teachers of secondary schools.

    “Since the employers are difference, the aspirations will also differ.

    “If there is a problem, NUT cannot shoulder our problem.

    “For instance, some teachers were sent out of their job by the state government during the Bukola Saraki administration for spending eight years on a step.

    “But this did not affect teachers in primary schools because they were never employed by the state,’’ Daudu said.

    The ASUSS leader said that with their struggle, the state government was forced to include secondary school teacher on the list of those who could proceed to Grade Level 17 before retirement.

    These teachers, he said retired on Grade Level 15 before the intervention of ASUSS.

    “That is why we say we are to be on a parallel line with them.

    “Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was with NUT before they left, College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) was with them before they left them.

    “The same thing was the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP).

    “It is the right time for us to leave also.’’

    In his remark, Mr Ezekiel Adegoke, the Acting Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state, to which the ASUSS is affiliated, urged the state government to accede to the demand of the labour union on the implementation of the N30,000 new minimum wage.

    This, he said is to avert the impending strike action proposed by workers in the state as it would be an ill wind that does not benefit the two parties.

    Adegoke, however, commended the state government for appointing teachers as education commissioner for and the Teaching Service Commission chairman.

    According to him, these appointments are round pegs in round holes, which is a plus for teachers in the state.

    Delivering a lecture, Dr Abdullahi Olokoba, Provost, Kwara College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, charged the ASUSS leaders to show the quality of good leadership in championing their course.

    Olokoba urged leadership to employ Kenneth Kauda of Zambia political styles to achieve its struggles.

    Kauda, he said led his people from obnoxious apartheid policy of the minority whites without resorting to violence despite all forms of persecution.

  • NUT reacts as Buhari approves new salary structure for teachers

    NUT reacts as Buhari approves new salary structure for teachers

    The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Lagos State Branch, Mr Adedoyin Adesina on Monday, commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of new salary structure for teachers nationwide.

    Buhari, in his message to mark this year’s World Teachers’ Day in Lagos, directed the immediate review of teachers’ wages nationwide for improved service delivery in the sector.

    President Buhari also used the occasion to announce the increase of teachers’ retirement age from 35 years to 40 years.

    Represented by the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, Buhari ordered the Minister to facilitate the implementation of the new teachers’ salary scheme, saying that the gesture was to encourage teachers to deliver better services to their pupils and students.

    The Lagos State NUT chairman, Adesina, expressed delight with the development, saying it would boost teachers morale and ensure efficient service delivery.

    Adesina told the NAN in Lagos that he was proud of the President’s directive.

    “This is a major change in the face of our education; the decision by Mr President would go a long way in making teachers do credibly well and effectively turn out good results.

    “It is a welcome development because when teachers spend more years in their work they age with grace and become more experienced to give their very best.

    “Indeed, the decision would change the face of teaching in Nigeria, because teachers have in the past not been catered for by past administrations,’’ Adesina said.

    Earlier, Adesina had called on the Lagos State Government to employ more teachers to fill vacuum created by retired teachers in public schools.

    Speaking at the celebration of 2020 World Teacher’s Day in Lagos on Monday, Adesina said that the union recommended that the state government should employ new teachers on subjects basis.

    He acknowledged that the government had employed some teachers in both the secondary and primary schools earlier this year but “the number is still short of expectation’’.

    “Many teachers have retired this year and the vacuum has to be filled in the various subjects,’’ he said.

    Adesina also spoke on the need for additional classrooms to space students and prevent the over-crowded situation.

    “This is the ideal, to implement the UNESCO’s standard of one teacher to 25 learners in a classroom.

    “Low-cost buildings can be built as an emergency across the state,’’ he said.

    The union leader remarked that teachers were the central figures and players in educational development.

    “UNESCO recommends 26 per cent budget provision for education but no federal, state or local government has ever met this recommendation.

    “The resultant effect is the poor standard in education.

    “Therefore, we have to re-image and re-invent this situation,’’ he said.

    Adesina commended Gov. Babjide Sanwo-Olu on the proactive and pragmatic measures put in place to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

    “Our visionary and the highly ingenious governor had long before the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic introduced digital training and learning into our primary school education.

    “We gave our utmost support for that innovative idea by encouraging our teachers, who successfully drive such the idealistic and imaginative concept.

  • NUT supports TRCN on deadline for unqualified teachers

    NUT supports TRCN on deadline for unqualified teachers

    The Nigeria Union of Teacher (NUT) is collaborating with Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) on the 2020 deadline for unqualified or unregistered teachers to upgrade, a union official has said.
    National Public Secretary of the union, Mr Emmanuel Hwande, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, that the ultimatum was necessary in ensuring that only qualified teachers were in schools in the country.
    The Federal Ministry of Education had on June 7, 2019 sent a circular to all public schools across the country, giving Dec. 31, 2020 as deadline for unqualified teachers to quit the teaching profession.
    The goal is to remove quackery in the teaching profession to ensure that only those with required competencies give the Nigerian child quality education.
    Hwande said that NUT was pleased with what TRCN was currently doing in compliance with the directive “because every teacher must be qualified and certified to enter the classroom’’.
    According to him, Nigeria needs quality teachers to deliver quality education and not the ‘cheaters’.
    “The establishment of TRCN is to make the teaching a professional affair that somebody who wants to teach must have requisite qualification to enter the classroom.
    “If you are not a law graduate and called to bar, you can never enter a court room; this should also apply to the teaching profession.
    “TRCN has said that no going back on the policy and the union will support the council in every way possible to achieve its target because we need quality teachers to deliver quality education’’ he said.
    Huande added that the level of compliance in public schools was higher than in private schools, which were really yet to comply with the order.
    “What is keeping private schools away from the order is their management, the proprietors and fear of exposing their staff.
    “Sometime ago, NUT went in to exhibit its jurisdictional scope in the school system but there was strong resistance from private schools.
    “We meet with the government intermittently to put on our demand and if government responds accordingly, we will not have strike issues or others, and that is the fear of private schools’’ he said.
    Hwande said that NUT often queried private schools’ recruitment process because the kind of people they brought into the system had no teaching skills.
    “If they employ Master’s degree holder, they will not be able to pay. What they simply do is to employ someone with West African Examinations Council (WEAC) and National Examination Council (NECO).
    “Teaching is a professional business, you cannot take your WEAC/NECO certificate to hospital as a doctor or nurse; nobody will allow you.
    “The quacks have to be removed from teaching profession to achieve the mandate of TRCN to determine those who are teachers in terms of their qualifications and registration with the agency,’’ he said.
    The union’s spokesman disclosed that at the expiration of the ultimatum, officials of the union and TRCN would go to public and private schools to enforce the order.
    He urged affected teachers to take the opportunity of the qualifying tests to do the needful before the deadline “because once you are caught as unqualified teacher, the law enforcement agencies will take it up’’.
    On Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) directive that all financial allocations to local government councils should go directly to their bank accounts,.
    Hwande said the order would return primary education to pre-1994 era.
    According to him, that was when funds meant for salaries of primary school teachers were used for other purposes.
    “ This was leaving teachers with backlog of unpaid salaries for 10 to 12 months in some states.
    “What NUT stand on this is that whatever the government is implementing should not affect, in anyway, the payment of primary school teachers’ salary.
    “The state government is responsible for the management of primary education and what local government does is to partner with the state to prevent primary education from collapse under the local government councils.
    “It is our submission that necessary policy arrangements be made to ensure the release of the teachers’ salaries before remittance of allocations to the local governments,’’ he said.

  • Minimum Wage: NUT directs teachers to join nationwide strike

    Minimum Wage: NUT directs teachers to join nationwide strike

    The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger State chapter, has instructed all teachers in the state to join in the nationwide strike for increment of wages by organised labour.

    Addressing newsmen on Monday at the end of the State Wing Executive Council meeting at the NUT Teachers House in Minna, the state chairman, Ibrahim Umar, called for an approval for the increase in the retirement age of teachers to 65 years.

    Umar said, “We received a directive from the national body that by 12 midnight of Monday, if nothing happens in the affirmative, we should join in the national strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress.”

    The state chairman, while disclosing that the number of teachers in the state has reduced from 30,000 to less than 27,000 said, “We want Governor Abubakar Bello to send an executive bill to the Minimum Wage: NUT directs teachers to join nationwide strikestate House of Assembly for the express approval to increase the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years and 35 to 40 years of service.

    The Union also urged the Niger State Government to regularise the release and implementation of members’ promotion at both primary and post primary school levels between 2015 and 2017.

  • NUT wants FG to review teachers’ retirement age to 65 years

    The President, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Dr Muhammed Idris, on Thursday advised the Federal Government to review retirement age of teachers to 65 years.
    Idris gave the advice at a news conference to mark the 2018 World Teachers’ Day in Abuja.
    According to Wikipaedia, the free encyclopaedia, the World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is held annually on Oct. 5.
    It was established in 1994 to commemorate the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world.
    World Teachers’ Day aims to focus on “appreciating, assessing and improving the educators of the world” and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching.
    Theme of the celebration is: “The Right to Education means the Right to a Qualified Teacher.”
    Idris said that importance of the theme was to retain teachers, who had experiences in the profession and also to train upcoming ones.
    The NUT president also called for the reversal of retiring teachers annually without a commensurate recruitment to fill the vacant positions.
    He advised stakeholders in the sector to join hands with the union in demanding a professional salary structure for teachers and to make it more appealing to young Nigerians.
    “Young graduates of education discipline and prospective teachers have ignored teaching profession because of the kind of salary teachers were receiving.
    “The right to education will be vain, vague, a mirage and elusive, without the presence of an optimum number of qualified, well-remunerated and motivated teachers in the nations’ schools,” he said.
    Similarly, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono, pledged a continuous cooperation and partnership with NUT.
    “We are pleased to report that we have been working very hard in Nigeria. Teachers, as one body, have made valuable contributions to policy development in our society.
    “It is grounded on the fact that they were talking about huge deficit in the number of teachers.
    “ The argument is that the coalitions of this in the university system; professors are allowed to stay up to 70 years.
    “In other institutions, 65 years; but why are we limiting teachers in the secondary and primary to 60 years.
    “This is the policy issue that the ministry will take up. The ministry is, therefore, assuring that these policy instruments are intended to meet with the demands of the teaching profession,’’ Echono said.
    He said that one key factor in ensuring quality teaching and learning was the availability of quality welfare for teachers to attract the best brains and commitment to the sector.
    NAN

  • Poor education funding: NUT gives Edo Govt. 21-days deadline

    Poor education funding: NUT gives Edo Govt. 21-days deadline

    The Edo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the State Government to provide adequate funding for education.

    The ultimatum is contained in a nine-point communiqué, issued in Benin on Sunday.

    The document was signed by the Chairman of the NUT in the state, Mr Pius Okhueleigbe, and the Acting Secretary, Mr Mike Itua.

    The association warned that the government would face dire consequences if it failed to meet the demands of the body before the expiration of the ultimatum.

    The union demanded immediate release of funds to cater for primary and secondary schools in the state, lamenting that teachers in public schools had been using their salaries to provide instructional materials.

    The union also demanded immediate implementation of the 2013 to 2015 primary school teachers’ promotions as approved by the government and payment of outstanding salary arrears to teachers.

    The body, similarly, sought the implementation of the N25, 000 minimum wage to all primary school teachers with the arrears.

    According to them, no dime has been paid to anyone since 2016 when the State Government approved the minimum wage.

    The union said the ultimatum became necessary, following the expiration of 45 days grace period it gave the government to mutually resolve issues at its meeting with the union last July.

    The union decried what it described as a lack of manpower in public schools in the state, advising the government to commence immediate recruitment of about 9,000 teachers to meet the gap.

     

  • Edo Govt. trains 1,500 persons on ICT-based teaching

    The Edo Government has trained no fewer than 1,500 teachers in the public primary schools in the state on Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based teaching.

    Mr Mike Itua, Secretary, Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Edo wing, disclosed this in an interview on Monday in Benin.

    Itua said that the trained and certified teachers had, since the resumption of the present term, been teaching online in the 300 pilot schools marked out by the state government.

    “Another batch of 2,000 will commence training in August as the training is in line with the Edo government’s vision and desire to digitalise education in the state.

    “The 300 pilot schools are spread across the wards in the state as teachers’ participation in the training for now is voluntary.

    “It is expected that in due course, all teachers in the state will be ICT compliant.

    “The programme is presently for teachers handling primaries one to three classes and the essence is to regenerate the old order and turn it anew.

    “It is expedient that you get it right with the pupils in their formative years as that is the foundation period,’’ he said.

    The NUT scribe said that the programme was saving teachers lots of man-hour deployed in lesson note preparation and planning, as this had been built into the programme.

    He said that the trained teachers were provided with working tools like tablets and iPads.

    Itua explained that government was considering the provision of solar energy in the public schools.

    He said that funds for the payment of promotion arrears for the primary schools teachers for 2013 to 2015 had been provided.

    Itua remarked that the teachers were now at par with other workers in the state civil service in that regard.

    The NUT secretary expressed optimism that the financial benefits of the promotion would be worked into the pay roll in June.

    “Pensions for the retired members of the NUT have been paid as at when due.

    “The gratuities and the arrears will be paid from the N1.5 billion approved by Gov. Godwin Obaseki on May 1,” he said

    Recall that early this year, Obaseki approved the ICT- based training to be done in phases.

     

  • NUT begins first inter-primary schools football competition in Yola

    The inter-primary schools football competition for the Comrade Rodney Nathan Cup, organised by the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), got underway on Friday in Yola.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the competition which is in its first edition kicked off with Zone H defeating Zone B 5-1 in the opening match.

    The competition, which is being organised by the Yola North branch of the NUT, has the 24 primary schools in its domain grouped into eight zones.

    Each of the zones has three primary schools under it.

    Speaking on the competition, Mohammed Mailaspy, the Chairman of Yola North branch of NUT, said it was aimed at promoting grassroots sports in the area.

    Mailaspy also said that the competition was a demonstration of the concern and welfare for pupils entrusted under teachers’ care.

    “The competition is a mark of appreciation to the state leader of the union, Rodney Nathan, for his remarkable achievements as the chairman of the state wing of NUT.

    “We therefore urge members of the public to watch the tournament with keen interest so as to identify potential football talents,’’ he said.

  • Teachers’ sack: Suspension of strike action by NUT is victory for public education – El-Rufai

    Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Monday said the recent suspension of the strike action embarked upon by the state’s chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) without recalling any of the dismissed teachers is victory for public education system in the state.

    Recall that the NUT, supported by the Nigeria Labour Congress, had called the strike to demand the recall of about 22,000 primary school teachers sacked by the state government for failing a competency test.

    In his first public reaction to the collapse of the NUT strike, Mr. El-Rufai said there was no time to dwell on the euphoria of removing trade union obstacle to better standards in the education sector.

    In a statement signed by the governor’s spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, Mr. El-Rufai at a meeting with the state’s 23 local government administrators and their Education Secretaries, said the focus must now be on implementing the education reforms in a way that upholds standards and improves the welfare of teachers.

    At the meeting, the state primary education board, SUBEB, chairman, Nasir Umaru, reaffirmed plans for the first batch of new teachers to be appointed by February 2018.

    SUBEB informed the meeting that interviews for applicants who passed the recruitment test conducted on 20 December, 2017 will commence on Wednesday, 24 January.

    ” The interviews will be conducted across the 23 local government areas by panels comprising experienced personnel from the Teacher Development Programme and other professionals,” Mr. Umaru said.

    Mr. El-Rufai said that the education reforms in the state require that a commitment to standards be sustained and new incentives provided for teachers.

    “Among these incentives would be a new salary scale for teachers and provision of houses for teachers posted to rural schools,” he said.

    The governor observed that the difficulty in securing decent accommodation in rural areas has led to over-concentration of teachers in urban centres.

    He said the Ministry of Education will provide designs for construction of buildings with at least six flats for teachers and a bungalow for head-teachers in rural schools.

    On education standards, he said the state had passed a law to establish the Quality Assurance Board to uphold standards in schools, while the state university-owned Kaduna State University, KASU, had been directed to establish an Institute of Education to provide continuous training for teachers.

    He further said that the current recruitment exercise will prioritise teachers of English, Mathematics and the Sciences. To expand the production of such teachers, the governor disclosed that the College of Education, Gidan-Wayawill will adjust its curriculum so that most of its products are trained in Primary Education Studies, Mathematics, English and the Sciences.

    The local government administrators and Education Secretaries commended Mr. El-Rufai for the unwavering manner in which the state government is implementing its education reforms.

    They noted that the governor’s determined stance had defeated trade union power that was being used improperly, and that teachers are now ready for a new phase.

     

  • Mass sack: El-Rufai, NUT reach truce as sacked teachers set to apply

    The Kaduna Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) on Thursday called off its ten days old strike and directed teachers in the state to resume duties immediately.

    The chairman of the state chapter of the union, Mr. Audi Amba, stated this shortly after the state’s Executive Council emergency meeting in Kaduna.

    Teachers in the state public primary schools went on strike January 8, 2018 following a directive from the NUT in the state that they should go on indefinite strike to force Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s administration to reverse the sacking of over 20,000 of its members for failing a primary four competency test it conducted in June 2017.

    Also, in solidarity with the union, organised labour, led by the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, last week (Thursday) defied the huge presence of security operatives to ground the state to protest the sacking of the teachers.

    Amba, while adducing reasons for calling off the strike, said the governor had decided to give the 21,780 teachers said to have failed the Primary Four competency test another opportunity for consideration for recruitment into teaching profession.

    He noted that as a union committed to the support of the state government in its drive for qualitative education, the union had no choice than to call off its 10-day-old strike.

    He commended members for their steadfastness during the struggle; and the leadership of the Labour movement in the country and the general public which identified with their plight.