Nigeria: National Teachers' Scheme Threatened
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
This Day (Lagos)
20 March 2008
Posted to the web 20 March 2008
Bukola Olatunji
Lagos
The Federal Government's National Teachers' Scheme, introduced less than two years ago, to meet the shortfall in teachers' supply for the Universal Basic Education (UBE), is under threat.
This is due to activities of some unscrupulous state governments who collect their allowances from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and refuse to pay them, among other violations.
Under the scheme, introduced in November 2006, the Federal Government recruited 40, 000 National Certificate in Education (NCE) holders, to work in primary schools across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
They were to be paid a monthly stipend of N10,000, from the Millennium Development Goals funds and through the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), for a period of two years. States, local governments and host communities were expected to augment this by providing accommodation and transportation, which could be monetised, to the teachers.
Sources confirmed that many states owed allowances ranging from two to six months, with Taraba and Delta states being the worst culprits, owing six and five months' allowances respectively, by the end of last year. To check these abuses, THISDAY learnt that the Federal Government has started direct table payment in some states, to alleviate the suffering of the teachers, some of whom have absconded from their duty posts.
Of all the states and the FCT, only Adamawa (N2, 000), Anambra (N3,500), Ekiti (N2, 000), Kaduna (N3,000), Lagos (N3,000), Ondo (N4,000), Oyo (3,000), Rivers (N5,000), Sokoto (N4,000), Zamfara (N3,000), the FCT (N5,000) and Sabuwa Local Government in Katsina State (5,000), pays allowances in lieu of accommodation and transportation as indicated.
Contrary to the laid down procedure, some local governments in Adamawa and Ebonyi states also made the participants to part with between N150 and N200 in bank charges, while some councils in Taraba State went to the extreme of deducting between N500 and N1,000 for the same purpose.
Relevant Links
On plans to retain these teachers, since practically every state is short of teachers, THISDAY gathered that only the FCT has indicated that 800 of the 1, 200 serving there would be retained.
Read comments. Write your own.
|
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Make allAfrica.com your home page
|
RSS Feed
Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >> | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
