Hope rises for unpaid private school teachers on FG’S survival fund
… to benefit 10 teachers per school
The Federal Government ha s lifted the hopes of private school teachers who have been enduring hardship over unpaid salaries following the six-month closure of learning centres due to the ravaging coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, as the affected tutors are billed to draw from the government’s survival fund.
Already, the affected teachers had as at Monday, September 21, at 10pm commenced registration on the Federal Government portal link provided on Sunday, September 20, by the Project Delivery Office at the Presidency.
The survival fund and payroll is a conditional grant support for artisans, private school teachers, vulnerable micro and small enterprises in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs in MSMES from the shock of Covid-19 pandemic.
The scheme is estimated to cater for at least 1.3 million jobs across the country, while targeting an average of 35,000 individual per state.
Yomi Otubela, national president, Nigeria Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), gave the news at an exclusive interview with Businessday, last week in Lagos, saying the salary arrears of private school teachers would be paid from the N2.3 trillion stimulus package recently approved by the Federal Government.
According to Otubela, only 10 teachers per private school stand to benefit from the fund, noting that not the entire 42,000 private schools in the country owe teachers’ salaries from March to date.
“While many of the schools recorded 100 percent in payment of staff wages, greater percentage of the schools did not pay at all and few paid between 50 and 75 percent,’’ Otubela said.
Though, the NAPPS president stated, ‘’The 10 teachers per school is inadequate. Others who could not access the fund would share with their colleagues who stand to benefit from the fund.’’
The affected teachers for the survival fund had fully registered as the portal for the registration of prospective beneficiaries opens on Monday, September 21, 2020, he said.
The support by the Federal Government, with the inclusion of private schools, ‘’is a welcome development to save private education sub-sector from imminent collapse,” he said.
NAPPS, he noted, had engaged the government in a proposal sent to the Economic Sustainability Committee, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on the need to support private schools to cushion the effect of the pandemic.
“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 and after the lockdown.