The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has bemoaned the fate of private teachers who have not been paid salaries as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic which forced government to shutdown schools across Nigeria.
National Treasurer of the Union, Mr Segun Raheem who spoke to news men in Lagos said Private school teachers deserve to be paid their salaries, while informing that the NUT is making concrete effort to Unionise them, eventhough such effort has been futile in the past.
Raheem said:” The pandemic has really affected so many people particularly when we talk of teachers in the private sector, so many of them have not receive such salaries in March.
“We as a union are working on unionizing them, we have in the in the past, but there were threats from proprietors, we will not renege, we will keep on making sure that our welfare is guaranteed.
“As a matter of fact, they are colleagues; because we own the same licence to teach- if they don’t have the opportunity in the public schools, they should be comfortable where they are in private.”
The Union treasurer while answering question on Federal Government initial plan to reopen school for terminal/certificate classes (primary6, JSS3, SS3) , disagrees with the plan, insisting the government will have to flatten the curve before calling for schools to resume.
He added most schools don’t have the required COVID-19 facilities that will help to curtail the spread of the virus.
He said: “Majority of our schools do not even have running water. Now if you say infared will be used to check temperature, who holds onto the infared? Is it the teachers that are not enough in the classrooms? Raheem asked rhetorically.
Most Private Schools teachers have not been paid their salaries since March when the government decided to close down schools nationwide as a precaution to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
