Kaduna teachers groan over 3 months’ unpaid salaries

With the Christmas and New Year festivities fast approaching, thousands of primary school teachers in Kaduna State are complaining over the nonpayment of their salaries for the past three months.

Authorities have said the delay was associated with a computer system failure shortly after a recent public employees’ verification exercise and promised to tackle the situation and the teachers, though yet to receive their salaries, have continued to report for work despite being owed three months pay.

A teacher who sought anonymity said they have not been paid for three months and government was delaying the salaries without justification.

“The state governor, Nasir elRufa’i has allowed the matter to linger for long. He is expected to resolve the problem long before it gets to this stage,” he added.

Two female teachers said the delay in the salary payment has affected their livelihoods because they could not make ends meet. “Governor el-Rufa’i should pay us please,” one of them said.

A state official said mistakes made during the recent verification exercise caused the delay. He said some teachers had their identification numbers appearing twice and their names were struck out to avoid double payments.

“To rectify the problem, the affected teachers were invited again for fresh screening. But you know how it is with government procedure; something that should take two days could end up taking one month,” the official said.

The source said the government promised to complete the exercise and pay the salaries in November but no one has been paid yet.

Also, another teacher said Governor el-Rufa’i had ordered for another verification exercise, particularly for those who had the double pin numbers.

“While they are trying to fix the problem, we are suffering from non-payment of salaries. What they should know is that getting things right as they cannot be overnight and we cannot continue suffering,” said the teacher. The source noted that in spite of the non-payment of the salaries, the teachers still report at their various schools, adding that they are committed to their work.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the state Ministry of Education, Jummai Yerima, said the commissioner was around and that he was the only official that can comment on the issue. She promised to send his phone number to our correspondent, but didn’t at press time.

Also, efforts to reach the chairman, Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Shuaibu Dabo, were not successful.