The Kaduna State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), has directed its member to begin an indefinite strike today, January 8 to protest the sack of 21,780 public primary school teachers by the state government.
The directive was contained in January 4 notice of the strike, signed by the union’s Assistant Secretary-General, Adamu Anglo.
Recall that the teachers were sacked for allegedly scoring below the 75 percent pass mark in the competency test organised by the government in June 2017.
The notice, circulated to union executives in the twenty-three (23) local government areas of the state, said a two-week ultimatum was earlier issued to the government to reverse its decision.
The Kaduna NUT said the decision has become necessary after the government issued sack letters to the affected teachers after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The strike notice reads: “As a responsible union, we ventilated our grievances before the National Industrial Court, Kaduna, and the court, on December 4, granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the government from disengaging any teacher pending the determination of the case.
“The order was served to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, but surprisingly, he went on to order the distribution of letters of disengagement to the affected teachers, dated November 3, 2017.
“We, therefore, met on January 4, and unanimously resolved to embark on indefinite strike today”, it added.
The notice also highlighted other unresolved issues with the government, such as the compulsory retirement of secondary school teachers before their due date, as against the 35 years of service or 60 years of age provided by civil service rules.
Other issues include unpaid 2015 leave transport grant to 3,338 primary school teachers, as well as 2016 and 2017 leave transport grant to all public school teachers, despite deductions at source.
