The Speaker, Kwara state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Salihu Yakubu Danladi have lamented decadence in education sector and called for the collaboration of Teachers for a systemic cleansing if transformation of the education sector must be achieved.
Danladi made the call while receiving leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) at the Kwara state House of Assembly complex, earlier today.
While addressing the Teachers, Danladi acknowledged their roles towards manifestation of the OTOGE mantra. He however lamented the magnitude of education infrastructure decay which occasioned inconvenient teaching and learning environment across the state.
He said “it is in recognition of the extent of education infrastructure decay that the AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq led administration paid the diverted Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC) counterpart funds to ensure a turnaround, which you will see manifesting very soon”.
Reacting on the backlog of salaries owed the SUBEB staff by the past administration, he said “we respect the Teachers for what they do and working round the clock to ensure we clear backlog of their salaries, but in achieving this, there must be systemic cleansing that will help curb financial leakage and allow value for our lean resources.
The Speaker emphasized need for a thorough screening that will smoke out ghost workers and afford us the ability to pay those truly working for the State. “We however need you to be patient with us and give us maximum cooperation, we need you to lay good legacies that will outlive us all and not be collaborators with the administrators at SUBEB and TESCOM in acts of indiscipline or corruption, because your members are at the receiving end”, he said.
He added that the present government will ensure welfare of Teachers are prioritize and offer necessary support for them, while they expect the Teachers to be more dedicated and committed to service, that every public officials will be confident of enrolling their children in public schools, noting that “private school Teachers are not all better than public’s, the difference is their level of commitment, on our part, we shall strive to ensure enabling environment for quality teaching and learning”.
Earlier in his remark, Kwara state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Toyin Salihu sought intervention of the 9th Assembly on Teachers’ promotion, salaries payment, increment and leave bonus, illegal deductions in their salaries, shortage of Teachers in schools and supports for social functions of Teachers, such as Celebration of World Teachers Day, which they claimed have not received support from the State government in the last eight (8) years.