Thursday, August 7, 2008

[size=16pt]Teachers get 27.5% pay rise [/size]

By Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja


If you are a professional teacher in the service of any state government, this story will interest you more. Reason: The 36 state governors have agreed to raise the current salaries of teachers by 25 per cent.



With the development, the more than six-week-old strike by the Nigerian Union of Teachers, may be called off any moment from now.

The NUT had on July 29 suspended the strike after the Governors’ Forum headed by Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki agreed to set up a technical committee to negotiate the contentious Teachers Salary Structure with its leadership.

Saraki announced the salary increase in Abuja on Wednesday evening after another round of meeting between the Forum and the NUT. He said that the 27.5 per cent increase would be based on the prevailing basic salaries in each state.

The governor, who read a statement issued after the meeting, said both parties agreed that only professional teachers would enjoy the new package.

On the implementation , he said the two parties also agreed that due consideration for the budgeting system and fiscal responsibility of the states should be considered.

In this regard, it was accepted that states that could accommodate the new package within their supplementary budgets should begin the implementation immediately, while those that could not should do so by January 2009.

The statement was signed by Saraki and the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Namadi Sambo, who chaired the committee that negotiated the pay rise with the NUT.

The statement reads in part, “That the 27.5 per cent increase on prevailing basic salaries in each state as recommended by the technical committee as a benchmark has been agreed.

And that individual state will implement same as peculiar within situations in the states.

“As regards implementation, within due consideration for the budgeting system and fiscal responsibility, where it is possible for a state to accommodate the implementation within the supplementary budget, such state should do so as soon as practicable. Otherwise, implementation should be effected not later than January 2009.

“The teacher-specific allowances have been noted but the Teaching Inducement Allowance is to be implemented for professional teachers only.”

The meeting was attended by six governors and seven deputy governors.

The NUT had initially embarked on a three-day warning strike, which began on June 11 over the TSS.

The NUT executive, which met in Abuja during the warning strike, threatened to go on a full-scale strike if the Federal Government failed to meet their demands.

The full-scale strike was supported by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, which threatened to join the teachers.

The NUT, had at a meeting with the Minister of Education, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, in Abuja insisted on the implementation of the salary-scale.

It also wanted the Federal Government to issue a directive to the state governments to serve as a benchmark for states to negotiate the TSS with it.

The meeting, however, ended in a deadlock following the refusal of the Federal Government to issue the circular.

Justifying the refusal, the minister said education was on the concurrent list in the 1999 Constitution.
http://odili.net/news/source/2008/aug/7/426.html