The National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr. Michael Olukoya, has said that the union and the Teachers Registration Council will sanction private school owners yet to comply with the directive on the employment of only qualified teachers.
The NUT president, who spoke with our correspondent, said that despite the fact that the National Policy on Education made it mandatory that the minimum teaching qualification in the country should be the National Certificate of Education, many private schools had continue to contravene the policy.
“NPE states that aside from the qualification of teachers, professionalism is also required on the part of the teachers; that it is only the qualified teachers that should be found in our classrooms and the Teachers Registration Council, which regulates the qualification of teachers will check mate this,” Olukoya said.
He also disclosed that the NUT had embarked on an Advocacy programme, which would end in September this year, to sensitise the general public and private school owners across the country on the need for their teachers to be unionized and their welfare taken care of.
“Apart from the fact that we are having a grouse with private schools on the quality of the teachers many of them employ, we have also started creating an awareness for them on the need to take care of their workers in terms of job security and salaries, because most of their workers are being paid poorly and overworked,” the NUT president added.
He, however, called on the supervisory ministries, school inspectors at the Ministry of Education and district level not to stay back in their respective offices as they should visit schools, especially the private ones, to ensure a hundred percent compliance.
On the issue of the lecturers of the University of Maiduguri recently abducted by the Boko Haram sect, the NUT boss said that the Federal Government should immediately secure their release and warned that failure to do so would result in the union joining the Academic Staff Union of Universities in its proposed strike action over the matter.
“We are calling on the government as a matter of urgency to secure the release of the abducted UNIMAID lecturers alive, if they don’t want the education sector to be shut down totally in the country; that is from primary to tertiary, as we will join ASUU in downing tools.
“This is not a threat but a warning because we will make sure both primary and secondary schools in the country are put under lock and key, even when the new academic session begins in September. We need some level of commitment on security by the Federal Government to ensure there is adequate security in schools, especially public schools, because enough is enough!” Olukoya said.
