Government must prioritise teachers’ welfare for efficient service delivery — Comr. Akeem Lasisi
Comr. Akeem Lasisi, doubles as the National Vice President, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) as well as the Ogun State Chairman of the union. He is equally the Chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC) Ogun State. In this interview with BANKOLE TAIWO, Comr. Lasisi among others urged government to prioritise teachers’ welfare for efficient service delivery as we celebrate this year’s World Teacher’s Day. Excerpts:
We are still in the mood of our 61st Independence celebration, when you take a stock of the journey so far, will you say teachers being very pivotal to nation building are getting necessary attention?
Let me first of all use this medium to congratulate Nigerians on the occasion of our 61st Independence celebration. May the greatness of this country suffer no delay again. However, as far as the teachers are concerned, we are not getting necessary attention and support especially Ogun State teachers. It may even interest you that come Tuesday, October 5, when we usually have the World Teacher’s Day, the teachers in Ogun may not come out for any celebration because of our grievances against the government. As we speak, the number of teachers in Ogun State has kept on reducing as a result of retirement, death, appointment to higher offices, transfer to other agencies and parastatals among others. The effect of this acute shortage of teaching personnel is obviously telling on the health of our teachers with many of them dying or picking up one ailment or the other because of too much work load. The effect of this is also noticeable in achieving the set target goals for the state. In the midst of all these challenges, the government also transferred the teachers arbitrarily on the first week of resumption for the 2021/2022 academic session. In Ogun State here, parents are also not allowed to support the education of their children by way of payment of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) levies which are just token financial support because it is obvious that the government could not bear this heavy burden alone. The PTA is dead in all our schools but this is not helping anybody because of the pivotal role this association plays in assisting to give quality education to the children…
(Cuts in)… But the state is running free education…
Must we continue to deceive ourselves? Can you compare the numbers of students and schools we have back then in the 70s, 80s when we enjoyed free education to what we have now? No government can successfully run free education these days without support from the parents and other stakeholders. Things are really not the same again, everyone from the parents, the old students or alumni, philanthropists and corporate organisations must come on board to assist the government to give our children quality education. We should stop hiding behind the free education. Except we tell ourselves the honest truth and adjust, the standard of education will continue to fall because how do you expect a teacher who is supposed to teach 25 periods in a week now teaching 35 or more to be effective? How do you expect optimum performance from teachers transferred from Abeokuta to Ipokia, the extreme end of the state or Waterside because there are no teachers in those places. Rather than employing teachers to fill up the existing vacancies, the government resorted to transferring teachers to very far places, far away from where they had settled down with their families. This is certainly not good enough and in teaching, when you are transferred even if it is to the tail end of the state, you have no allowances, you will be responsible for moving your family down, rent a new apartment and all sorts.
It should however be noted that you cannot divulge the welfare of the teachers from their optimum performances. A teacher that is dislocated cannot perform optimally. Some of our teachers from Abeokuta were just transferred to Ogun Waterside, Ijebu Ode, etc, how do you expect optimal performance from such teachers? If at all this transfer would be done, it ought to have been done about three months earlier as this would have afforded the affected teachers to make adequate preparation and prepare their minds to resume at their new duty posts unlike when we are already in the third week of the new term when the teachers would have paid for his rent, fixed his children in schools and all that, at the end of the day the teachers would be blamed for just no fault of ours.
Are you saying that the free education government claims to be running may be counterproductive?
I have never said that free education is not good, in fact but for free education it might have been impossible for me too to get educated. However, I am saying that things have changed drastically, the number of schools and students that must be catered for by government right now in addition to other responsibilities have gone up astronomically unlike how things were in the 70s, 80s and except we are deceiving ourselves, it may be so impossible to run a successful free education. There is a need for other stakeholders like the parents, the old students, philanthropists and corporate organisations to get involved. It is as simple as that, it is so obvious government cannot do it alone.
Are you now suggesting that government should henceforth allow parents to pay tokens to support the education of their wards?
We have said that several times, there’s the need for government to allow parents to support the education of their children if truly they want quality education for their children.
But why is government not employing?
The government is in better position to answer that. There’s this recruitment of 5,000 teachers under Ogun Teach programme and our expectation was that these newly recruited teachers would resume the new term with us but we did not see anyone. What we rather saw was the transferring of our members from Abeokuta to Ipokia, Waterside, Ijebu Ode, etc. This is certainly not good for our education, in fact, one of our teachers had accident while on his way to his new duty post. We are all aware of the challenges of insecurity and the fact that most of our rural roads are in bad state all of which pose great danger to arbitrary transfer of the teachers.
Have you taken up this matter with the appropriate government quarters?
Yes, we have written several letters, we have had series of meetings with the government, we still have other pending meetings and we are saying that the government should please listen to the pleas of the teachers.
What about the issues of 19 months unremitted cooperative deductions running into billions of naira which is already making teachers in the state to be agitated?
That’s another challenge teachers and generally, workers in the state are also confronted with. We have been talking to the government on these issues, we have written the government, we have also been on air to say that the government has not been walking the path of the MoU signed with the workers last year September before we suspended the strike. In that MoU, government promised that from October it will begin to pay gross salaries meaning that the global deductions like that of the cooperatives, check off dues and host of others would be paid along but as we speak that has not been done, though check off dues for the unions are being paid but that doesn’t mean that we have not been engaging the government telling them the workers are quite aggrieved and not happy for sitting on their cooperative deductions. Cooperative is the major lifeline for our teachers and because the government has refused to pay many have died untimely, many have picked up ailments, it has resorted to broken homes for some people because they could not meet their financial responsibilities, many have had problems paying for their children education. Ogun state workers are saying that this is no longer acceptable and if the government will continue to play the deaf one here and not pay these 18 months cooperative deductions right now, definitely, no industrial harmony is guaranteed. It’s so unfortunate that government by its insincerity is making workers to give labour leaders all sorts of bad names, calling us collaborators with the government and enemies of workers. If government had stayed true to the MoU signed with the organised labour things would have been a lot different. The MoU stated that by March this year, there would be a review, that government and labour would jointly sit to look again at the MoU and review the workers’ demands. However this has failed to be, of the five items in the signed MoU, only that of the minimum wage had been implemented and we are quite grateful to government for this. The quarterly release of N500M to offset backlog of gratuities has been done twice, though by now, we ought have had the fourth tranch. On outstanding promotions for 2018, 2019 and 2020, the government promised to release the letters, though the promotion exercise had been completed but up till now nothing has been heard. Another issue was on the 2020 pensions bill, though, suspended but the government promised to set up a committee to examine issues around the bill but this has not been done too.
Is it true that strike looms in the state?
As long as the government will refuse to listen to the appeals of the workers, then we can’t guarantee industrial harmony in the state. Already the labour unions; Trade Union Congress (TUC) Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) have written the government and this month of October, we would send a reminder after which Ogun workers can then decide what to do afterwards.
Like how many teachers should government employ now to stabilize the secondary schools education?
Government should at least employ 3,000 to stabilize this sector. There will be great relief for the teachers if this is done. Parents, old students, philanthropists and corporate organisations must be really ready to support the education of these children.
What are the immediate requests from the government as we celebrate this year World Teacher’s Day?
First and foremost, those teachers transferred arbitrarily should be asked to go back to their former schools. The work should now be given to our Principal Generals and Zonal Education Officers who are very conversant with all the parameters that guide the transfers of the teachers. The government should also allow the newly recruited 5,000 teachers to start work immediately. The government should also wake up to its responsibilities and ensure that workers are not denied of their welfare. The government should please pay up the 18 months cooperative deductions. Government should also provide conducive learning environment for the students. It’s also high time we also stopped playing politics with our education, it’s serving no one any good. I remember sometimes ago when the present administration announced that parents are to pay just a bit to support the education of their children. The opposition went to town to say that the government is longer running free education again. Are we saying it is too much for parents to support the education of our their children with just N1,000? It’s evil if we continue to play politics with education.
The federal government last year announced 65 years as the retirement age for the teachers, any update on that?
That is mere political statement because the federal government said same thing in 2019 and 2020. However, that is not what is uppermost as far as we are concerned. How about ensuring that even if I am retiring at age 60, I will not suffer. I will have my gratuity, pension on time and while working, I will have my salary on time, I will enjoy better working condition too. It is after all these have been done that any elongation of service could be appreciated. Many are even willing to leave the job if they will have their gratuities and pensions on time.
What is your message for the teachers as we celebrate another Teachers’ Day?
I want the teachers to first of all thank God for His faithfulness and mercy over them. We must always thank God for the gift of life. I want to encourage them to remain committed and dedicated to duty. It may appear as if the reward for now does not commensurate the efforts until in no distant future when you are parked at a fuel station and someone came down from his car, prostrated and while you are still trying to remember his face he paid for your full tank and then added that he was your former student. You may consider the reward as being poor until when you are on a queue in a bank and one young woman comes out from her office, spotted you and go down on her knees introducing herself as your former student after which she took you inside her office and attended to you. I can go on and on. The rewards of the teachers are equally here on earth, so let’s keep on putting in our best for the greatness of this country because these children are the greatest assets for our dear country.
