Found this heart breaking report published by the SUN newspaper and just had to share…
■ Staff go months on end without salary
■ Pupils learn under inhuman conditions
“Many teachers in primary and secondary schools in Abia State are
presently down with high blood pressure and stroke. Some have even
died. The cause of the health challenges and deaths is the condition of
things in the education sector in the state. We are not being paid; we
are suffering. In fact, we are living in bondage. And our salary is even
less than what they pay in some states. For instance, a level 12
teacher in Abia earns the same thing with a level 10 teacher in Lagos
State. If you ask, they tell you it is ‘Abia formula’. But the little
they agreed to pay is not coming as at when due.
“We celebrated Nigeria’s 54th independence on empty stomach and
there was no march-past; no teacher will agree to do that because he
will fall down as a result of hunger. I wonder what happens in families
where both husband and wife are teachers. Of course, such families will
turn to beggars; they will depend on people to contribute food for them.
We need grace. It is not funny at all. If not that teaching is a thing
of conscience, nobody would want to teach in Abia because the treatment
they are giving us is not encouraging at all. A garri seller is better
than an Abia teacher now because, at the end of the day, you collect
your money for what you sold. In Abia, uncertainty is our lot. The
system is worse than mess.”
With these words, a secondary school teacher in the state, who
identified himself simply as Boniface, bemoaned the precarious living
condition of teachers and the prevailing circumstances in the schools.
According to him, “it could be said that primary and secondary school
teachers in Abia State are endangered species. We are treated with
disdain; we are accorded no respect at all. We are treated as if being a
teacher is a crime in the state. We don’t know what we have done to the
state government. We have never had it so bad. And the ugly state of
affairs is taking its toll on teachers. Sometimes, the government will
say that it has paid, but we won’t see anything. It is alleged that a
high ranking official in the board, who hails from the governor’s
hometown, puts the salaries in fixed deposit account for two months
where the interests roll over. So, while they are making money, the
teachers are dying in abject poverty.”
Indeed, these are certainly not the best of times for primary and
secondary school teachers in Abia State, just like other categories of
civil servants in the state. Investigations revealed that teachers are
not being paid as and when due. Checks revealed that while primary
school teachers are owed three months salary, their counterparts in
secondary schools have not been paid for four months as at the first
week of October, this year.
A secondary school teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
disclosed: “I don’t understand what is going on in the education sector
in Abia State. Teachers are not regarded or reckoned with. We are still
battling with June salary. Up till today, October 6, 2014, we have not
received June salary. Any time they like, they will pay one-month
salary. We may even end up collecting September salary in December.”
He further said that promotion of teachers is a different kettle of
fish. It was learnt that before this dispensation, teachers were
promoted every three years but now it is four years. And even at that,
the accruing benefits will be tampered with. “They manipulate things
and shortchange you when you are eventually promoted,” a vice principal
told the reporter.
Confusion
In one of his evergreen offerings, Afrobeat impresario and iconoclast, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, sings: Confusion break bone.
This certainly rings true for primary and secondary education in God’s
Own State. In a manner of speaking, confusion has broken bone in the
state. Put differently, there is confusion everywhere in the state.
Since the state government transferred some schools to their original
owners, namely the missions, confusion reigns supreme. Schools were
handed over to their former owners last term, but it became effective
this term. It was learnt that government also transferred its financial
commitment to the schools to the new owners. A vice principal said: “In
Aba, for instance, almost half of the schools have been returned to
churches and this has unsettled things because the action was neither
well thought-out nor properly executed. The teachers are not
comfortable in the mission schools and they were told to go away if they
are not okay with the arrangement. So, what has happened is that, such
teachers have now flooded the schools not under the control of churches.
And they cannot afford to go to schools in the rural areas because such
schools are not accessible; the roads are in such a deplorable
condition that going to such places as Ohanku, Owerre Aba, Ogbor Hill
and Umuojima is a herculean task. For that reason, the displaced
teachers in the mission schools refused to go to the rural areas,
thereby flooding the schools in the towns. There iws, therefore, no
harmony in the schools set up. One school may have up to 20 English
Language teachers while another one may have three.”
Some of the schools experiencing a glut of teachers include Abayi
Girls Secondary School, Immaculate Heart Secondary School and Ngwa High
School, all in Aba.
No teaching materials
It was gathered that teaching materials are not adequate, if at all.
Hear this teacher: “During exams, it is the teachers that buy materials
for practical subjects. We buy the specimen for the practicals because
the government does not care about such things. The classrooms remain
what they have been for some time. In fact, they are deteriorating
because of lack of maintenance. For now, our main concern is how to
feed ourselves. We are talking about how to eat; nobody is talking about
infrastructural development or chairs.
“Some of the students bring their personal lockers to school. In
some schools where the Parents Teacher Associations (PTAs) are strong,
they provide benches that can accommodate four students. This
government has not done anything in that direction. At least, we have
not seen any such thing in our school. Officially, the schools are
tuition-free but the students pay what they call government levy. ”
It was also gathered that the non-indigene teachers who were laid off
not too long ago by the state government have not been paid their
entitlements. One of the sacked teachers said: “They went on the
internet organising kangaroo reinstatement exercise. They are telling
the world that they have called us back but that is a lie from the pit
of hell. I don’t know the modalities they adopted. Most of my
colleagues who had the same problem with me are still perambulating,
doing nothing. They brought a few of us back to paint a different
picture of the situation on ground but it is all falsehood. Worse still,
some of those that were recalled are at the mission schools where their
future is uncertain because the new owners are recruiting their own
personnel.”
Recall that the state government disengaged thousands of civil
servants for the simple reason that they are not indigenes. Most of the
sacked workers are teachers in primary and secondary schools across the
state.
It was also gathered that the teachers were compelled to buy
computers from the state government at N130,000 each. A source said:
“The computers are not the best in terms of quality. The mode of payment
is that N5,000 is deducted from salaries every month. And most of the
teachers are not computer literate. Instead of training them first, they
were compelled to buy the computers before learning how to use them.
It’s like putting the cart before the horse. Again, why would you buy
for them or force a particular product from a particular source on them?
If you want every teacher to own a computer, you should have allowed
them to make their choice. There are thousands of teachers in Abia
State, so you know what it means to buy a computer at N130,000 per
teacher. How much do they sell a computer of that grade in the market?”
Many of the teachers are disenchanted with the development. “I don’t
know why I should be asked to buy a computer when I already have one.
Moreover, my computer is better than the one they are forcing on us in
terms of quality. They are not paying but they are always devising ways
of making life more difficult for us,” Ngozi, a teacher, lamented.
Classrooms in ruins
Most of the infrastructures in public schools in Abia State are in
shambles. The common features are broken roofs, crumbling walls and
unplastered or damaged floors. Overgrown weeds or wild plants define
many of the schools, thereby putting the lives of the students in
danger.
“We kill snakes in our school all the time. Before the long vacation,
a huge snake was found coiled inside a classroom. The children hardly
go out to play because they are afraid of dangerous reptiles,” a teacher
said.