AKS Teachers Lament Non-Payment of 3 Months Salaries

...To Down Tools if Arrears of Gratuities, Pensions, 7½ Contributory Pensions Deductions, Ors are not paid 

By Ephraim Ikpe

Teachers in Akwa Ibom State under the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT)have raised alarm in a letter written to the state governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio and posted on facebook over a week ago accusing agencies of government including SUBEB for causing Primary school teachers to be owed their salaries since June 2014.

The Union has also threatened to down tools at the resumption of the next academic session (2014/2015) if all the issues raised in its letter government have not been addressed holistically by governor Akpabio.

NUT leadership stated in its letter to government that as at 18th August 2014 teachers salaries for three months(June to August 2014) were not paid. “It is on record that SUBEB has not paid Primary School Teachers their June 2014 salaries. Some teachers we learnt have not even received May 2014 salaries. It is on record that for over two years, Primary School Teachers are paid once every three months. This attitude has made our teachers to keep borrowing as they no longer know when salaries are to be paid”.  

Speaker Sam Ikon, Governor Akpabio and Wife, Unoma,
and Secretary to AKSG, Mr Udom Emmanuel during a thanks-
giving service recently

According to the Union, in a meeting with the SUSBEB permanent secretary held on the 4th of August, 2014 the Union was strongly promised that the Board was going to pay June 2014 salaries that week, but it was not so.

Another of the Teachers’ grievance has been that teachers not captured in the biometric capture exercise have been declared “ghost workers”, non-payment of 2013, 2014 leave grants which has been reduced to endless buck-passing between the State, Local Government Joint Accounts Committee and SUBEB, revealing, according to NUT, a clear case of “government’s way of demonstrating unreadiness to pay”. 

The NUT also accused government agencies of buck-passing with regards to non-payment of promotion arrears from 2009 to 2012, non-payment of Check-off dues for three months(May – July 2014), which is the funds NUT uses to run its administrative activities, non-payment of gratuity to retired Primary School Teachers, full release of money(N2500) – teachers House Deductions per Teacher and non-remittance of Welfare Commitment of NUT local government area Branches of teachers deducted by SUBEB to the Union.

The NUT also complained that Teachers who were absorbed into secondary board since January 2013 have been working without salaries, that more teachers be recruited  according to the news in 2013 of the engagement of 5000 teachers to reduce the 100 pupils :1 teacher ratio to encourage qualitative education, non-release of 2013 promotions, deduction of one thousand naira (N1000.00) per teacher from March-May annually for Akwa Ibom Teachers Welfare Scheme as well as SUBEB’s prevarication over refund of 7½% contributory pension deductions to retired Primary School Teachers.
In the light of the above complaints, the Teachers’ Union stated thus;
“The teachers of Akwa Ibom State have borne enough with SUBEB and all the other agencies of government who clearly have utilized our sense of patriotism and cooperation with the present administration in the state to continue to do us and the education system harm, and we therefore want to make known our position that if:- 
“Salaries of June, July and August are not urgently paid; all the outstanding arrears of 2013 and 2014 Leave Grants Promotion arrears of 2009, 2010, 2012 are not paid; all cases of Bio-metric data exercise are not captured to the satisfaction of all parties concerned; All arrears of gratuities and pensions up to 2014 are not settled; Refund of 7½ Contributory Pensions deductions are not made to all retired Primary School teachers and full list published; All check-off dues accruing to NUT Akwa Ibom State Wing are not paid; Full monies of teachers contributions to Teachers’ House Project are not released to NUT Akwa Ibom State Wing,; 2013 promotions are not released; 500(?) new teachers employment is not released, January 2013 absorbed teachers from 6 Community Secondary Schools taken over by government through the State Secondary Education Board are not paid, 400 Federal Teachers recruited into primary and junior secondary school since December 2013 teachers are not paid; Teachers are not recruited to fill vacancies in our primary schools; SUBEB does not also remit all deductions from teachers’ salaries to NUT Local Government Area branches for Branch Welfare schemes”. 

The NUT continues that if “Deductions of N1000.00 per teacher for Akwa Ibom Teachers Welfare Scheme (AKTWELS) as decided by delegates at the April 25, 26, 2013 State Conference are not carried out and same remitted to NUT,; The Directorates of finance and schools services and any other problematic unit in SUBEB are not overhauled to make for efficiency that will guarantee smooth and prompt payment of teachers entitlements, prompts promotions as at when due; All arrears of subventions cleared and those for the 1st term of new (2014/2015) school year paid before re-opening of schools.

“ALL BEFORE SEPTEMBER 15, 2014, THE NUT WANTS TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT ALL SCHOOLS WILL REMAIN CLOSED BY NEXT (2014/2015) ACADEMIC SESSION.
The NUT also wishes to make it clear that ALL SCHOOLS means ALL SCHOOLS since injury to one is injury to all; and that the teachers of Akwa Ibom State will not settle for any piece-meal settlement of the listed grievances”.

In the NUT’s letter signed by Mr Etim Etim Ukpong(NUT,  State Chairman) and Dr  Mike Ike Ene(NUT, State Secretary) entitled, “The Plight of Our Primary School Teachers, Other Teachers And NUT’s Position” teachers were adjudged to “remain the most critical factors towards the successes of the state’s education policy and achievement of uncommon transformation especially in the education industry”.

But NUT said “It is disturbing and really disheartening that some of the agencies” the governor has put in “place to oversee and manage the affairs of teachers and education in the primary schools sector to ensure optimum productivity and quality, have been working hard to deny teachers their rights, ridicule the NUT, put her on collision course with the teachers, frustrate her efforts at meeting obligations and continue to ensure industrial harmony in the state, distort the educational process and try to portray union leadership as anti-government or opposition”.

NUT said it has “for more than two years now” engaged itself  “to fight, cry and show reasons on monthly basis, why primary school teachers should receive any payments or rewards from the government, even when their colleagues in the other public service sectors in the state are enjoying such benefits without any noise”.
According to NUT, “efforts through official correspondences, memos, dialogues, discussions, personal and unofficial contacts with the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, office of the Head of Civil Service, and so many others” has not yielded results.

In a phone call put to Comrade (Dr.) Mike Ike Ene, State Secretary of NUT, AKS, as at press time asking to know the reaction of government to the body’s letter and threat to down tools, he said that in a meeting held last week Wednesday in which the Secretary to the State government, Mr Udom Emmanuel represented the governor,  and attended by the Head of Service, the head of SUBEB and other agencies which manage education sector of the state, as well as NUT leadership, that government gave directive that SUBEB should pay the June to August salaries due Primary School teachers in Akwa Ibom State.

Dr Ene said government directed SUBEB to address other issues raised in their complain letter.  He said he was not in government but as at Wednesday September 2014 he was not notified whether any of the teachers in Primary schools in Akwa Ibom State  had got any alert relating to the said outstanding salaries being paid as well as other entitlements, but was sure that if their demands were not adhered to, the new resumption date pushed to October 2014 by federal government because of Ebola virus outbreak, would not be honoured by Teachers in Akwa Ibom State.

But the State Chairman of NUT, Mr Etim Etim Ukpong in a telephone chat with our reporter said government directed June and July salaries to be paid on Friday August 29, 2014 but that he was told that only June 2014 salaries of Teachers were paid as at that date and nothing was heard of July yet.  He stated that August 2014 salaries owed Primary school teachers were to be paid on Friday September 5, 2014.  Asked about government response to other issues raised in the Union’s letter he said they were still watching government’s reaction at the moment.

A text message sent to the phone line of the Secretary to the Government of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel as to the true position of things concerning the reaction of government to the NUT letter was not replied as at press time.