The Oyo State chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Raji Oladimeji has lauded the efforts of the Engr. Seyi Makinde-led administration for the giant strides it has recorded in the educational sector.
He added that the state government has changed the narratives associated with teachers’ promotion in the state while urging other state governors to emulate him.
Comrade Raji stated this during an interaction with select journalists at the union’s secretariat in Oluyole, Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo state during the week.
He said, “In Oyo state, primary and secondary school teachers on the same grade level receive the same salary whereas in some states, such is not practiced. We are getting it right in Oyo State, some of our teachers have been upgraded to level 16 and 17 and more than 10 teachers have been appointed as Tutor General/Permanent Secretary”
The Oyo State NUT chairman further stated that the implementation of statutory salary for professional teachers in the country is a collective proposal from the national body of the union while adding that there should be a standard and unified salary scale allocated to teachers in the country.
Comrade Raji added, “We have also considered the peculiarity of each state, for instance in Oyo State, apart from the salary, we have additional 27.5 bonus in addition to our salary but if you go to other states it is not being paid whereas this was unanimously agreed about 12 years ago when Senator Bukola Saraki was the chairman, Governors’ forum. Even in Kwara State it has not been implemented”.
He further revealed that the NUT needs a lot of political and spiritual intervention to actualize their needs from the Federal Government while revealing that the government is yet to sign into law the uniform salary structure in the country.
Comr. Oladimeji said the role of the NUT includes proposing its demands to the federal government while the national body negotiates in order to actualize their aims.
The NUT boss further added that the introduction of professional examinations and registration has brought sanity to the educational sector adding that the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) certification is now a compulsory requirement for teachers in the country.
“TRCN is a regulatory body for teachers in Nigeria and it is a must for all teachers to be certified by the body, not having it is like a virgin in the maternity ward. Before recruitment is done now, the certification is a requirement to be submitted before employment. Recently 650 teachers from Nigeria were employed in Canada because of TRCN”.
Packaged by Dare Raji
