Abia State government has taken steps to prevent teachers in the primary and secondary schools in the State from embarking on strike.
The members of Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, had last week served the State government a notice of strike, alleging non implementation of Teachers Salary Structure, TSS, retirement of teachers before the approved 65 years, among other complaints.
The teachers, who spoke through their State Chairman, Madu Friday and the Secretary, Nnenna Okonkwo, also alleged that many school principals and school heads were not receiving the monthly running imprests approved by Governor Alex Otti, adding that the Governor may not be aware of the anomaly.
But addressing journalists on Tuesday after this week's executive council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti, Abia State Commissioner for information, Okey Kanu said that the State government is taking steps to address the complaints of the teachers.
He said that the Commissioner for basic and secondary education, Goodluck Ubochi is already on the matter and would be meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, to address the issues they raised.
He accused the members of the opposition in the State of blowing up the news beyond the real issues.
“Yes, we have a section of teachers who are not happy about certain issues concerning their remunerations, owing partly to some differences between the salaries of primary school teachers and their counterparts in the junior secondary schools”, Okey Kanu said.
He said that Abia teachers have been receiving their minimum wage of N70,000 and have had their retirement age increased by Governor Alex Otti from 60 years to 65 years.
He further said that some incentives were introduced by the State government for teachers, which he said encouraged those who left the teaching profession because of non payment of salaries during the past administrations to return to classroom.
