A notice pasted on the school gate reads: “Strike ongoing. Academic activities grounded in King’s College; five months salaries unpaid. Staff are dying.”
A teacher, Mr Muhammed Isa, who spoke with our correspondent yesterday, said pupils, should have resumed on September 17 and 18 but would not do so until the issue is resolved by the federal government.
He said the matter is the same at the Federal Government College, Idoani in Ondo State.
Isa said: “The Federal Government has not paid our salaries for five months now. We did not even allow the pupils to resume. Obviously, we have some problems that have to be resolved. Our own children cannot go to school because our salaries have not been paid. Also, we do not have the empowerment to come to work. It has to do with money. You have to pay your transport from wherever you are to come to school, we cannot trek. There are some of our staff who are sick and cannot pay hospital bills. One of the staff came on Wednesday, in need of money to pay her hospital bills and she could not get it. She died on Friday. So this has informed us not to resume and we did not take the action without the approval of our mother union, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN).”
Mrs Binta Duguri, who teaches Government and Civic Education said: “The non-payment of salary is really affecting us because our own children are at home, because there is no money to pay their school fees. The ones that have reached university cannot even resume. It is not fair that we should come and be teaching other children for free.” (The Nation)
