TEACHERS in public schools in Bayelsa State, under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), on Wednesday, appealed to Governor Seriake Dickson to facilitate the payment of their outstanding salary arrears.
They made the appeal in a seven-point communique jointly signed by Mr John Toinpre Kala-Ama, the state NUT chairman; Mr Johnson Hector, principal secretary and Akanyo Timi, the publicity secretary.
The teachers urged Governor Dickson to prevail on authorities of local government councils to pay the backlog of four months salaries owed primary school teachers in the state.
The state government, they said, should assume its constitutional collaborative responsibility of augmenting the funding and management of the primary school system, through the Universal Basic Education Programme.
The teachers also appealed to the state and local governments to quickly address issues of payment of imprest to headmasters and equitable distribution of instructional materials for functional academic work.
Other problems, they listed, included acute shortage of teachers, as well as non-implementation of promotion and annual increment for primary school teachers, among others.
They also demanded that the NUT be represented in the state education committee as directed by the government.
The teachers as well threatened to commence the suspended strike if their demands were not met.
It will be recalled that the 2016/2017 academic session was delayed for one month, following a strike by the NUT over outstanding salaries.
The teachers shifted ground and suspended the strike following pledges by the government to prioritise payment of their salaries.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the communique was issued following an emergency meeting of the state wing of the union, at the Teachers House, Yenagoa.
