Primary school teachers in Kogi State, under the aegis of the Association of Primary School Head Teachers of Nigeria (AOPSHON), have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike, if the Office of the Accountant General of the state fails to complete the ongoing teachers’ screening.
The state chairman of the AOPSHON, Dominic Ondeku, who disclosed this while speaking with newsmen, expressed dismay over what he described as the inhuman treatment the state government had subjected the state primary school teachers to since November 2011.
Ondeku explained that it was very disheartening to note that other civil servants in the state had been enjoying minimum wage since July last year, while the primary school teachers and local government employees were left out of the scheme of things.
He decried the series of the screening exercises the primary school teachers in the state had gone through to determine the staff population and the financial implication, adding that up till now, nothing had come out of it.
“To worsen the predicament of the teachers, the payment of salary was transfered to the Office of the State Accountant General, instead of State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) that has the statutory role of paying teachers salaries.
“The payment had been haphazard in the name of e-payment, [and] up till now, some teachers are yet to be paid their December, January, February, March and April salaries,” he stated.
