By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab Ilorin
Kwara state wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) yesterday backed out in the agitation for the local government autonomy. Th ey also advocated that primary school teachers’ salaries should be made fi rst line charge from the federation account. Th e members of the union staged a peaceful rally in Ilorin, the state capital, to register their displeasure over the salary crisis rocking local government administration in the country. Members of the NUT at the rally were armed with placards with various inscriptions such as “pay teachers regularly for a sustainable primary education; primary education is the bedrock for every educational development; basic education is a right and must be protected; Shaky foundation collapses system; Funding of primary education should be the responsibility of state and federal governments; and enough of toying with the future of our youths,” among others. Addressing journalists at a rally organised in Ilorin, the chairman, state wing of NUT, Mr. Musa Abubakar, warned that primary education was at the verge of collapse “if it is left in the hands of local governments.”
He said the call for primary education to be excluded from the local government control was in accordance with the 2002 Supreme Court judgement, which asked the states to take over the responsibility of basic education management. Th e NUT chairman, however, advocated that primary school teachers’ salaries should be made fi rst line charge from the federation account and paid through national primary school education commission with strict supervision by the states. “Today’s programme is a rally to show our concern on the plight of primary school teachers in this country, the situation that has bedevilled primary education in this country. “Teachers are owed various degrees of salaries including our state here. It is on record that some local governments are owed up to 11 months salaries; those scenes have gone. “However, with this renewed agitation for local government autonomy again, we have seen the danger that is inherent in it, particularly primary education, where the downtrodden belongs, and we felt that there is need for us as a trade union to come out, to show our position and to let the whole world know that primary education will be at the verge of collapse again un
