Kogi approves immediate employment of 500 science teachers

Kogi Government has given an immediate approval for the recruitment of 500 science teachers for secondary schools in the state.

The Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission, Chief Sylvester Onoja, who made the disclosure in Lokoja, said the approval was given by Gov. Idris Wada.

The approval came at a time teachers in secondary school in the state gave a notice to commence a three-day warning strike from Oct. 7 to Oct 9.

He spoke at a ceremony by the Academic Staff Union of Senior Secondary Schools (ASUSS) to mark 2015 Teachers Day.

Onoja said that the new teachers would be recruited from among those that sat for written and oral interviews in 2013.

He said that names of the successful teachers would be out on Oct. 6, while the distribution of employment letters to them would start the following day.

Onoja admitted that schools in the state were in bad shape but said that the government was trying to address the situation gradually, noting that about six secondary schools had been renovated.

The ASUSS State Chairman, Mr Ranti Ojo, had said that the warning strike would affect 203 senior secondary schools in the state.

Ojo said that the objective was to call the attention of government to the deplorable situation in public secondary schools.

He said a situation where many schools in the state had been without principals and teachers in mathematics, English Language, sciences and other subjects could no longer be tolerated by the union.

Ojo said that over 90 per cent of secondary schools in the state were in deplorable conditions while teachers’ leave grants, arrears of yearly increment and promotion had remained unwind since 2011.

He also called for the re-introduction of the 27.5 per cent special allowance for teachers which was stopped since 2011 and urged the NUT members to fully participate in the strike.

The NUT at a separate event to mark the day also called on the government to treat teachers with respect and dignity by ensuring prompt payment of their salaries and allowances.

The State Chairman of NUT, Alhaji Suleiman Abdullahi, urged the government to ensure that part of the N50.9 billion bailout fund was used to settle the outstanding arrears of salary and leave grants.

He also advised the state government to evolve a system that would make education in the state a self-sustaining enterprise.

The state Head of Service, Mr Moses Atakpa, who represented the state governor at the two events, promised teachers that they would smile in the next few weeks.

He also said that teachers that retired recently would soon receive their gratuity and other entitlements and urged teachers to continue to support the government.