Olubusuyi Adenipekun
17 July 2008
Lagos — Beginning from May this year when the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) called out its members on a three-day warning strike and the commencement of a full-blown strike from June 30, teaching and learning activities have been put on hold in all public primary and secondary schools throughout the country.
This development has made many teachers, who do their job with passion, idle. This category of teachers are those who do not mix teaching with any other commercial activity. These are teachers who are wholeheartedly devoted to their calling.
Although their monthly salary is nothing to write home about, they are still committed to their job.
In most public secondary schools, extra coaching classes have been outlawed as governments do not want students to be burdened with payment of extra fees.
But these teachers who are more interested in the academic excellence of their students still organise remedial classes for them free of charge.
It is understandable therefore why these teachers are finding it difficult to cope with the boredom imposed by the national strike, although their monthly take home pay is far from meeting their financial commitments.
Mr. Lukman Babatunde, who teaches at Gbeleyi Primary School, Isolo, is on Grade Level 09 and earns a monthly salary of N30,000. He has no other job apart from teaching yet he is married with three children who are all in private schools.
He says of the financial difficulty that he contends with. "My economic life is nothing to write home about. In the past I used to get extra money of between N3,000 and N4,000 monthly from extra-lessons we organised for our pupils. But that has stopped now after government scrapped tutorial classes in Lagos State. How do I feed my family, clothe them, pay house rent and my children's school fees with N30,000 monthly? Before I can meet these commitments comfortably, I need to earn salary of N120,000 monthly."
Mr. Ashimiyu Adeagbo, who teaches at Ilasamaja Primary School, does not fare better. Despite being on Grade Level 12, having put in meritorious service of 24 years, he goes home with only N52,000 monthly.
He has no other means of earning extra income and he is married with children.
Adeagbo says: "My present salary cannot cater for the essential needs of my immediate family. It is surprising that government has been delaying the implementation of the Teachers' Salary Structure. Japan, China and other developed nations are what they are today as a result of the investment put in human capital development by their governments.
Our own governments should emulate these successful nations by spending money on human capital development."
To those committed teachers, the poor wages they earn is only one aspect of the gargantuan problems inhibiting the performance of their job. The decay of infrastructural facilities in most schools across the country is another grey area which needs to be addressed.
At Alimosho Senior Grammar School, Ipaja, for example, the school's buildings have deteriorated and classrooms are grossly inadequate for students.
According to Mr. Isaac Olowoyo, a teacher at the school, "all our school's infrastructural facilities are spoilt, the roof of two classroom blocks were recently blown off by rainstorm and they have not yet been repaired up till now.
This development has left us with no choice other than to merge classes together, a situation that is not conducive to teaching and learning. If the government has paid proper attention to education, the condition of teachers and even schools would not have deteriorated to the level they are now."
The civil society has continued to echo teachers' criticism of government neglect of the nation's education as well as its handling of the on-going teachers' strike.
According to the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), government's overall reactions so far are utterly insensitive, diversionary and dangerous.
It says further: "the DSM regards the government's threat against proposed picketing of teachers in private primary and secondary schools as anti-union and totally irresponsible.
This threat has revealed the real character of Yar'Adua's administration, despite all its anti-corruption window-dressing; it is anti-working class government."
"The DMS also totally condemns the government's position that it does not have sufficient funds and that it could not take a decision to implement the teachers' demands because of its financial implications on states as insensitive and legally untrue.
Against the background of billions of dollars currently being realised from crude oil sales, but which unfortunately are largely being stolen by top government officials, it is very very insensitive for government at whatever level to be talking of financial inability to meet the modest demands being made by the striking teachers."
"Recently, the National Assembly passed jumbo salaries and allowances for themselves and certain top functionaries of the state. For instance, the annual salaries and allowances of the 469 members of the National Assembly have been increased from 41 billion naira to 60 billion naira.
In sharp contrast, the TSS which, at best, will bring minimal comfort to teachers is being trivialized by government at the expense of the teeming millions that patronize public education."
Apart from the minimal comfort which the TSS will confer on teachers, many stakeholders are of the opinion that the payment of the TSS will enable teachers to focus only on their primary responsibility of teaching. This is so because the harsh economic situation which the teachers find themselves have forced many of them to take their job unserious by combining it with other jobs that fetch them money to complement their poor salaries.
Expectedly, this set of teachers are always happy to go on strike as this will afford them more time to pursue their businesses. To this category of teachers, the on-going strike is a welcome development as it gives them relief from teaching as well as the marking of both WAEC and NECO papers.
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