Primary schools teachers in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had on Wednesday began an indefinite strike over some pending arrears.
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Stephen Knabayi, has diclared that unless the teachers began receiving credit alerts in their bank accounts, they will not call off the ongoing strike action.
Primary schools teachers in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had on Wednesday began an indefinite strike over some pending arrears.
Acting Secretary of the NUT, Margareth Jethro, said the strike resolution was due to the non-commitment and lack of political will by the six area council chairmen to settle outstanding entitlements of LEA primary school teachers in the FCT.
According to her, the council chairmen have refused to offset teachers’ promotion arrears from 2014 to 2018, and failed to implement 2020 and 2021 annual increments.
She noted that the councils also failed to upgrade qualified teachers.
However, the chairman, while speaking with News Agency of Nigeria on Friday, hinted that they will not call off the strike based on mere word of commitment.[story_link align="left"]104134[/story_link]
He asserted that a similar action was taken by the FCT teachers towards the end of 2021 but that they returned to class with the hope of a positive outcome, which he added, never happened.
He said, “That is why we have decided to resume the suspended strike today based on the non-commitment; and at this point we will not call off the strike based on mere word of commitment.
“Unless teachers begin to receive alert, we will not call off the strike.
“For now, only primary school teachers are on strike but if it persists we will call on solidarity strike, where secondary school teachers will be part of.
“I am just from a meeting now, where some people met with us on his behalf but we did not agree on anything positive.
“We are talking about arrears of 2014 to date, including arrears of annual increment.
“Annual increment is supposed to be an automatic thing yet it is not being paid.
“We do not understand the reason they are giving us because we did not start speaking about it today,” he said.