As the 2015 general elections draw near, the Lagos state government has concluded plans to appease the teachers by paying the full balance of 27.5 percent Teachers Salary Scale (TSS) being owed to the teachers in the state.
The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos, at the weekend, also said with the implementation of the Eko Project, teachers had been trained to give the best to the pupils and students.
She said: “We are not unmindful of the need to fully pay the 27.5 per cent special (teacher) allowance to the teachers; hence government is working assiduously with a view to paying the balance on TSS soonest. Government, therefore, craves the understanding of its teachers on this bearing in mind that it will not hesitate to pay the balance of their allowance as soon as possible.
“Teachers are not angry with Governor Babatunde Fashola; they are happy with us. We are working hand in hand to meet their demands. The fact that government had an outstanding to pay the teachers did not mean that they were not happy with the government,” she added.
Oladunjoye also said the issue of leave allowance had been embedded in the state’s consolidated salary structure.
“Government is not unmindful of the critical roles and importance of teachers in the scheme of things. As a matter of fact, our conviction of the pivoted role of education and indeed our teachers in the development and economic growth of a nation has been our driving force in the attainment of excellence in the provision of education in Africa.”
In his reaction, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Segun Raheem, said teachers had agitated for the payment of the 27.5 per cent, adding that “it is the only allowance that differentiates the teachers from other civil servants.”
“The state government was paying before the introduction of the minimum wage in 2011. The excuse the government gave was that since the salary was consolidated, there was no way it could work out what 27.5 of the basic salary was.”
