From: Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Primary school teachers in Bayelsa State have declared that the industrial action they embarked upon due to non-payment of salaries would not end until their plight are addressed.
Governor Henry Seriake Dickson had bemoaned the plight of the primary school teachers in the state, noting that the state government was willing to take over the responsibility of the payment of salaries, if the administration of the local councils is sanitise by weeding out ghost workers.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) had kicked against the payment of their salaries by local councils stating that the state government must accept the responsibility to ensure the payment of their salaries.
When Daily Sun visited some of the primary schools in Yenagoa and Ogbia Local Government Areas, the gates were firmly locked in compliance with the directive from the NUT, Bayelsa state chapter that primacy school teachers should remain at home until the state government addressed their plight.
The NUT which said it has been involved in talks with the state government since 2013 lamented the neglect of primary school teachers in the state.
Chairman of the NUT in Kolokuma/Opokuma council, Koin Dinepre, said the teachers would stay at home until their plight was addressed.
According to him, the payment of only one month salary out of 10 months arrears owed the teachers would not compel them to call off the strike.
The Commissioner for Education and his counterpart in the Ministry of Local Government, Mr Markson Fefegha and Mrs Agatha Goma respectively have appealed to the teachers to call off the strike insiting that local government council and not the state government, have the responsibility to cater for primary school teachers and primary education.