By Omoniyi Salaudeen
A professor of Economics and former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Segun Ajibola, has urged the Lagos State government to consider the approval of special allowances for teachers on Lagos Island to address the high cost of accommodation and transportation.
He noted that teachers on the Island hardly showed up for five days in a week as a result of the combined effects of high cost of accommodation and transportation.
This development, according to him, had resulted in shortage of teachers, forcing head teachers to collapse classes.
He made the submission in a speech delivered on the occasion of the retirement of his wife, Mrs Florence ‘Yemisi Ajibola, from the Services of Lagos State Teaching Service tagged “PenDown” on Friday.
He said: “Most primary schools especially on the Island are short of the desired number of teachers forcing head teachers to turn to classes or collapse classes, at the expense of quality offering.
“Teachers on the Island can hardly show up for five days in a week as a result of the cost of accommodation and transportation. Maybe such teachers need some special allowances either for accommodation or transport fares,” he said.
While commending successive administrations in the Lagos State for setting high-education standard, he called for the harmonisation of duties of supervising agencies to prevent unnecessary duplication of efforts.
Professor Ajibola, however, decried the practice of fiddling with teachers’ savings, saying “the sanctity of contributions by teachers to their cooperative fund should be preserved at all times.
“The state should resist the temptation of fiddling with such funds as depriving the teachers of their contributions at the point of need will be improper and most unfair.”