TEACHERS SUSPEND STRIKE IN ABIA, COMPLAIN OF SALARY CUT

REPORTER: JOSHUA OBIALO

Academic activities have resumed in some primary and secondary schools in Abia State after a two-month strike embarked on by the teachers due to inability of government to pay their salaries.

At Union Primary school, Afara-Ukwu in Umuahia, Radio Nigeria observed normal classes were going on.

In an interview, the Headmistress of the school, Mrs. Abigael Ekeh, said they resumed on Wednesday and were expecting the classes to be filled to capacity by Monday.

Mrs. Ekeh enjoined parents to prepare their wards to start immediately so as to cover up the schemes of work, as the session had been adversely affected by the strike.

The situation was the same at Community Secondary School, Old Umuahia in Umuahia South Local Government Area, where teachers and students were seen engaged in learning process.

Some schools visited had not resumed classes as their teachers said that government had not fulfilled their demand.

One of them, who spoke the on condition of anonymity, said she was only paid twenty-five thousand naira of her February 2022 salary, leaving more than thirty thousand naira unpaid.

She questioned the rational behind cutting teacher’s salaries, stressing that it would dampen the zeal to perform effectively in teaching and learning.

A parent interviewed, Mrs. Chinwendu Okechukwu, expressed happiness that the children had gone back to school, adding that an idle mind was the devil’s workshop.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU