By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
Bonro State Governor, Babagana Zulum has lamented over the non implementation of the national minimum wage for Local Education Authority (LEA) teachings in the state, admitting that some tea hers still receive less than N11,000 as monthly salaries.
This is sequel to wide spread criticisms against Borno State Government for its inability to fulfil its promises to implement new minimum wage at the local government councils level for both the local government workers (LGCs) and Local Education Authority (LEA) who is constitutionally responsible for payment of salaries of primary school teachers.
Recall that The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, published a News story confirming that for over 10 months or a year ago, LEA teachers in Borno state were still being paid based on the old minimum wage at the local government councils level.
Although, the report claimed that Governor Zulum was the first to lament publicly, that teachers at the Local Education Authority (LEA) level, were still receiving less than N11,000, while their counterparts working at the State level were being paid based on N30,000 new minimum wage.
The Governor’s spokesman, Malam Isa Gusau on Monday gave the above explanation in his reaction to some screenshots shared on social media platforms, showing credit alerts of some LEA teachers’ salaries from a LGA, with less than N10,000 as salaries.
The spokesman recalled that Governor Zulum had while addressing the reconstituted Borno State Universal Basic Education Board, under a new Chairman, Prof. Bulama Kagu, at the Government House, Maiduguri, on October 26, 2021, said the following:
“It is pathetic that there are teachers who are still collecting between N13,000 and N11,000 and even less. Despite economic challenges, we must work to ensure that every qualified teacher in Borno State earns a minimum of N30,000, which is the national minimum wage” Zulum lamented.
Gusau recalled that Zulum himself admitted that whereas the minimum wage was already implemented for all workers at the state government levels including teachers, the implementation at the LEA could only be done after the system was sanitized just as it was done for state workers, Gusau recalled.
He said: “To prepare LEA teachers for national minimum wage, Governor Zulum had constituted a committee to conduct basic literacy and numeracy tests as well as competency assessment on all 17,229 LEA Local teachers across Borno’s 27 Local Government Areas.
“On February 17, 2022, the State’s Commissioner of Education, Engr. Lawan Abba Wakilbe, a highly experienced, competent and hard working educationist, who chaired the committee, presented what Zulum later described as a scary report.
“The committee further found that out of 17,229 existing LEA teachers, a total of 11,790 representing 69% of the entire LEA teachers, were found unqualified to teach.
“2,389 of the LEA teachers had no academic qualification whatsoever, not even secondary school certificate while 3,815 of the LEA teachers were found to be untrainable while only 5,439 teachers (31.6%) were good enough to teach, out of the 17,229 teachers assessed by the Committee.
“With this report of the special high powered committee set up by the governor and headed by a university don, Dr. Shettima Kullima , Governor Zulum had the option of sacking the 11,790 unqualified teachers and could have used the monies being used as their salaries to implement the national minimum wage for the 5,439 qualified teachers but declined to do so despite high expectations from the people he may lay them off.
“However, Zulum announced that none of the 11,790 unqualified teachers was going to be sacked to create additional unemployment, rather, he took a compassionate decision to avoid increasing unemployment in Borno State.
“Instead, the governor identified or selected a number of the unqualified primary school teachers for training on the job while others were to be assigned to work in various sectors of the local and state civil services including planting of trees under the State Ministry of Environment.
“Based on the committee’s report again, the governor directed that the new minimum wage should immediately be implemented or applied to the 5,439 LEA teachers found to be qualified to teach, pending further decisions on the 11,790 unqualified teachers.
“This informed Borno State Commissioner for Education, Engr. Abba Lawan Wakilbe’s recently decision to lead officials of his ministry to a meeting with the Borno state’s Ministry for Local Government and Emirate Affairs, where a new national minimum wage was agreed to be implemented or applied for the 5,439 qualified teachers in line with the Governor Zulum’s directive”, he said.
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