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Folashade Adebayo

The Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers has said that the planned autonomy for local governments should not include the payment of salaries and allowances of primary school teachers.

The teachers who trekked from the Oregun Senior High School to the Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday, were prevented by the police from accessing the premises of the LAHA.

The teachers threatened to remove the barricades before they were later received by the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Mr. Lanre Ogunyemi, and the Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. Bisi Yusuf.

Noting that teachers were not against the proposed autonomy for local government, the Lagos NUT Chairman, Mr. Segun Raheem, however, said that local government would not be able to cope with teachers salaries, a situation which he said could lead to incessant industrial strike.

He said, Primary school education has its own budget and a percentage is meant for salaries and allowances. That percentage should be taken away from the local government tier.

We are not against local government autonomy. But no local government can afford to pay salaries. The local government did not employ us because it can only employ officers up to Grade Level Six. No teacher is below Grade Level Seven. Allowing local governments to pay salaries will take us back to 1992 when primary school teachers were owed salaries.