The leadership of National Association of Private School Teachers (NAPST) has said it has compiled the list of 10,000 private school teachers for submission on Monday to the Federal Ministry of Education for payment of monthly stipend to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.
The National President of the Association, Comrade Augustine Akhigbe, told Tribune Online, in Abuja, said that the list was the number of affected teachers who registered on the Association’s website for the Federal Government’s palliatives after thorough verification.
Minister of State for Education, Hon Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, had confirmed that government requested for the list of members of private school teachers affected by the effect of COVID-19 lockdown for possible palliatives.
He, however, disclaimed reports in some quarters that the Federal Government was going to take over payment of salaries of private school teachers.
Nwajiuba explained that various windows were available through the government’s stimulus package and palliatives to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic which Nigerian teachers in private schools could benefit.
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He said the government would verify those that are authentic teachers from the registration with the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
The NAPST President had explained that in response to the letter written to the Minister of Education, the leadership of the Association was invited to meet with some directors in the ministry to defend “our position and they asked us to bring account details of our members that are affected.”
Akhigbe said the details of 10,000 of affected private school teachers would be to the Ministry on Monday as first the batch and then keep mounting pressure while others register on the Association’s website.
On the issue of registration with the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), he said that could not be applicable for now, stressing that people teach in the classrooms without TRCN certificate and such persons should not be allowed to wallow in abject poverty because of the pandemic.
He added such a standard could not be emphasized now in the time of emergency.
He said: “We are looking at government supporting all our members across the country during this period of the lockdown. We want government to understand that as teachers in private schools, we contribute a lot to national development.
“80 per cent of Nigerian parents, if they are to make a choice, they will choose to take their children to private schools, because of commitment to education of the children and all the services that the private school teachers offer in terms of building the child capacity.
“Now that there is the pandemic, it will not be fair for the government to just fold their hands and say oh, it’s a private business. They must look at the contributions our members are making when it comes to provision of education in the country.
“We are saying that government should provide the platform to support our members with a monthly stipend to keep them going. Just imaging a family where the husband and wife are teachers in private school, where will they be feeding from?
“From March to till today, you put them in agony. We have written to the Minister of Education and we are engaging and by God’s grace, our request would be granted.
“What we are asking for is monthly stipend. We are not asking for the whole salary, if it is N30,000, N40,000 or N50,000 or even N20,000 that government will say we are using this one to support you pending when the schools would be reopened. It could be three months or four months.
“After the pandemic, we can now look at the bigger picture on how to make the private school sub-sector respect the teacher’s rights and privileges. But for now, our major issue is how to get help for our teachers because most of them cannot pay any bill and they have families to cater and a lot of suffering is taking place across board,” he said.
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