Public primary and secondary schools in Bayelsa have not yet begun the 2016/2017 session due to inability for government to pay teachers their seven months salary arrears.
According to Vanguard, teachers had embarked on strike towards the end of the 2015/2016 vacation.
In a statement released on Monday, October 3, 2016, the Bayelsa chapter of Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, urged teachers to continue to stay at home until their demands are met.
Explaining that the industrial action is a compulsory one as it became inevitable after the expiration of its 21-day ultimatum to the government on September 19, the union condemned alleged efforts to factionalize the union.
In the statement which was signed by the state chairman of NUT, Mr. Kalaama Toinpre, and secretary, Mr. Johnson Hector, the union said that it was a legally known as a body charged with the concerns of primary and secondary school teachers.
The union lamented that the government had disappointed them on an earlier agreement which was reached in May and included that the government would pay half salaries to the teachers pending improvements in the finances of the state.
The union noted that the state government had only paid its workers for the month of January in full and half salary n Februray, making arrears of seven months.
The state commissioner for Education, Mr. Markson Fefegha, stated that the government had begun negotiating with the teachers in order to resolve the issue.
“We have been meeting with the executive of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, I have been explaining to them our efforts so far in meeting our salary obligations.” Fefegha said.
