EDUCATION: NUT Suspends Two-week Strike

Latest gist as the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Bayelsa State wing, has suspended its two-week strike with immediate effect.

It is gathered that the suspension of the strike followed the state government’s release of N300m to augment payment of primary school teachers in the local government areas of the state.

Teachers in the state’s public primary schools had on
Monday, May 8, 2017, commenced an indefinite strike to protest against unpaid nine and a half months salaries owed them by the government.

The indefinite strike followed the expiration on May 4, 2017, of a three-day warning strike called by the state wing of NUT.

The teachers’ body had directed all primary school teachers to sit at home and shun classrooms with effect from May 8.

But in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Chairman of the State Wing of NUT, Kalaama Toinpre and Secretary, Johnson Hector, expressed appreciation to the state government for its gesture, saying it would go a long way in alleviating their plight.

Others who endorsed the statement are the Chairmen of five LGAs, including the Vice Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in the state, Kuroghofa Walter Benwari and its Secretary, Ebiango Egain.

The resolution to stop the strike, the union said, was reached after exhaustive deliberations between the various LGAs and executives of the NUT in Yenagoa.

According to the statement, the NUT expressed appreciation to the state government for its financial assistance and resolved that the LGAs are to facilitate the payment of the February 2017 salaries to teachers.

The statement further said that no teacher would be victimised by any LGA in the state for participating in the industrial action, adding that other issues raised by the NUT would be subsequently addressed.