Edo sets up audit panel for schools

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENIN—Edo State Government has set up an investigative panel in the 18
local government areas of the state to audit schools, number of
teachers in the schools, their qualifications and the salaries and
allowances paid to them.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole said this, yesterday, when the National
Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, paid him a courtesy visit
at Government House.
He said the decision was designed to get to the root of the current
mismanagement in the primary schools with regards to teachers
salaries.
He said: "It was part of this search, I suspect, that led to some
people burning down the archives at the Ministry of Education.
"What we have been trying to do is to find the courage to clean up the
mess we inherited in the state and ensure that we leave behind, not
just roads, schools and street lights, but a school system that works,
so that the level of manipulation can be minimised if not completely
eradicated.
"If there is one matter that has engaged my time and those of my
lieutenants in government, it is resolving the problem of teachers'
salaries, because the problem has been there for a very long time."
, those involve in it are so deeply entrenched in it," he added.
On the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, strike Oshiomhole said "It is
very unfortunate that the NUT chose to play to the gallery. For people
like me, there are advantages of my being here; we will not pursue
anti-worker and anti-union policies. Edo State was the first state to
pay 27.5 percent both for secondary and primary schools. I did so
because I believe paying teachers more will encourage teachersto go
into teaching.
"What we are paying now is as a result of a collective agreement
between theNUT, the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, ASUSS
and Edo State Government. You don't go on strike when there is a
subsisting agreement."
He maintained that the 27.5 percent Teachers' Special Allowance agreed
with two unions shrunk to 17 percent because of the new minimum wage,
arguing that if the NUT wants a review of the agreement, it must come
to the negotiations table, adding that he will not be forced an
agreement on the union, if it fails to negotiate.