Gov. Peter Mbah of Enugu State has approved the release of N1.9 billion for the payment of four-year accumulated leave allowances owed to public primary schools’ teachers in the state.

Mr Uche Anichukwu, Senior Special Assistant to Mbah on External Relations, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Enugu.

Anichukwu said that the approval was in fulfillment of the governor’s promise to ensure that teachers get all their entitlements in line with his administration’s determination to enhance their welfare and boost productivity.

He said that the ‘260 smart green school policy thrust’ of the current administration to give the children of the state a quality head start could only succeed if the teachers were well motivated to give their best.

Anichukwu also recalled that the governor had earlier approved the extension of the full implementation of N30, 000 minimum wage to primary school teachers and local government workers in the state.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that strike is not imminent, if the Federal Government implements the agreements reached, in the next two weeks.

Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU said this in an interview with

It would be recalled that ASUU had threatened to embark on strike over the non-implementation of agreements reached with the federal government.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman had on June 26, invited the union for a meeting to deliberate on the lingering issues affecting universities and to avert the planned strike.

Osodeke said none of the agreements reached with the Federal Government had been implemented.

“At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we will meet to see the progress the government has made.

“We will also see what we will do next, if government fail to implement the agreements reached.

“The meeting in the next two weeks is to see what they have done which will inform our decision,” he said.

The ASUU president said some of the demands included, the non implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements.

He said the agreements had lingered for over six years and government was yet to implement them.

Osodeke said the academic allowances due to their members had also accumulated for over six years and nothing had been done about it

On the issue of revitalisation fund, he said they agreed on the NEEDs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion yearly, for five years.

“Since 2013, only one has been paid. We need revitalisation fund to upgrade our universities to standard, so that we can be having students and lecturers from outside the country,” he said.

Oshodeke added that the government was yet to stop the proliferation of universities adding that many new universities were being approved without fund to run them.

He said the government was also yet to exit the university salary payment from Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System!(IPPIS) as approved by the Federal Executive Council in January

He said their members were still being paid by IPPIS against the directive by the FEC.

By Dennis Udoma, Uyo

Professor of Mathematics Education in the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Amos Awodeyi has decried the decline in Mathematics teachers across school systems nationwide.

Awodeyi said the decline in professional mathematics teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary systems in the State, could turn into a dangerous trend if the situation is not addressed in order for the school system to remain atop and able to  produce future  Mathematics professionals.

The University Don made this known during the 101st inaugural lecture held at the main campus of the institution on Thursday titled, “The Art of Mathematics Education, Development, Research and Teaching; My Journey So Far.”

Awodeyi, who gave an expose on the subject matter stunned participants; students, teachers, school management with discoveries in the world of Mathematics, and charged the students to develop passion and commitment in learning the subject.

“The starting point towards ameliorating the poor performance in mathematics learning and teaching is retraining of serving teachers on teaching documents.

“Further Mathematics should be made compulsory for all secondary school students who aspire to study science, mathematics and engineering at tertiary level of education.

“Teachers should let the mathematics topics make sense to their students; teach with the knowledge of the goals of mathematics teaching in schools, and focus on the objectives of teaching the topics in the classroom; tools and instructional materials should be handy; students should be engaged with relevant activities in the classroom and take home exercises should generate activities for students,” Prof. Awodeyi advised.

Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the inaugural lecture, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo commended the lecturer for his expertise in mathematics describing him as a great asset to the University.

He extolled Awodeyi’s scholarly ingenuity in Mathematics maintaining that he has paid his last due required of every Processor and inducted him into the “Hall of Fame” of the inaugural lecturers of the institution.