The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has urged states not yet paying the N70,000 minimum wage to start without further delay.
The union also asked states implementing the new wage to let it reach all categories of teachers, reports The Nation.
NUT President Audu Amba said this yesterday in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, while expressing appreciation to the state government for starting the N70,000 minimum wage implementation but frowned at the exclusion of primary school teachers in the payment.
It was earlier reported that 20 states had started implementing the new minimum wage, while 16 others had not begun.
Amba, who spoke at a delegates’ conference of the state’s wing of the NUT, called for the implementation of the minimum wage by all states and to all categories of workers entitled to it.
He said: “Let the minimum wage reach all workers so everyone will feel a part of it. It is unfair for those not getting the higher wage and it will affect the balance of education delivery.”
The chairman of the state’s chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Emmanuel Fashe, urged the state government to extend the minimum wage payment to primary schools.
He also called for the employment of more teachers, especially at the primary school level, saying: “Some primary schools have just the headmaster and one or two teachers for a whole school. And these few people run helter-skelter to teach hundreds of pupils in several classes.”
In his message to the conference, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri urged teachers to be selfless in imparting knowledge.
