FG Bows To Pressure, Agrees To Pay Salaries of Private School Teachers

Federal government has agreed to pay the salaries of private school teachers that are being owed by their school management since the coronavirus lockdown started in March.

President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Yomi Otubela, who disclosed this on Monday, stated that a number of private school teachers have come out to cry for help as they have not been paid by their management since March when schools were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, adding that the schools’ management insists they cannot pay salaries since they have also not made money by way of school fees.

Otubela said the association forwarded a proposal to the Economic Sustainability Committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, for the government to pay the salaries of the private school owners and that an approval has been granted to the proposal by the Federal Executive Council.

”We have written to the federal government to understand that these teachers are teaching Nigerian children and that they need to keep them and their families together during the lockdown.

“So the federal government has listened to our request. We requested that the teachers’ salaries in private schools should be taken over by the government during the months of the lockdown. We also requested for a single digit loan for private schools to cushion the effect of the COVID19.

“We requested for support for schools that have existing loans, that they (FG) should liaise on our behalf with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and CBN will liaise with commercial banks and other financial institutions to ensure that they give them soft landing in terms of moratorium to repay and deduction in the interest loan.

“The federal government has approved that they will take over the payment of teachers salaries”.