PTA Teachers Storm State Assembly To Protest Sack By State Govt.
Over one thousand teachers, who were employed under the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) arrangement in Anambra State, have staged a peaceful protest at the state House of Assembly over the termination of their upgraded appointment by the present administration.
The teachers, who blocked the gate of the State Assembly, chanted solidarity songs and also carried placards with inscriptions, such as, “We have worked for many years, as PTA teachers, we are here for our Jobs,” “We voted for Continuity, why terminate our appointments?” “They gave us appointment letter and now terminate it without any reason.”
The spokesperson for the protesting teachers, Mr. Uche Eze, explained that their names were shortlisted by the Ministry of Education as candidates who passed teachers recruitment and were issued letters of appointment on the 3rd of November 2021 to start work as permanent staff.
He expressed regret that they had worked for seven months without pay. He said they were waiting for their salary arrears only to be told that their appointments had been terminated and that they should reapply for the job if they were still interested.
“We sat for CBT examination and were shortlisted as successful candidates, in November the state government under the last administration gave us appointment letter, we were all excited and willing to continue impacting knowledge on the younger ones,” the spokesperson lamented.
One of the teacher, Mrs. Esther Ifeonyemetere, alleged that two of their colleagues died recently while waiting for government to pay them their seven months arrears only to get sack letters.
“Two of our members have died, look at us, most if us are married with children that go to school, what do we do, how do we cope in this economic situation in the country?”
“Some of us have worked for ten to fifteen years as PTA teachers, this is not fair at all. We gave our full support to this new administration to come into power,” he cried out.
Another protesting PTA teacher, Mr. Onyedika Okoye, who said he had been teaching for over 15 years before they were upgraded in November, last year, into the state government employ, said some of them were teaching four subjects despite the paltry sum they received monthly as stipends.
He complained that the upgraded teachers in primary schools who were issued with appointment letters were meant to submit them back in the guise that there was a typographical error, but the letters were never returned to them till date.
“We are about one thousand two hundred upgraded teachers since the present administration said it wants to recruit five thousand teachers.
“Why not recruit about four thousand and add them to our number to get the number? We have passion for this job and that is why we have been working even without pay since seven months; its not fair to ask us to leave just like that,” Mr. Okoye stated.
They, then, appealed to the state government to reconsider its decision and retain them while recruiting new ones to join the system.
Responding to the protesters, the Speaker, Anambra State House of Assembly, Mr. Uche Okafor, promised that they would look into their complaints, and commendem them for their peaceful conduct.
Earlier at plenary, the House sympathized with the family of late member, Mr Okechukwu Okoye, who was recently murdered.
The House also commiserated with the people of Aguata Constituency Two and Isuofia Community, urging Government and security agencies to fish out the killers and punish them accordingly.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers after going through their votes and proceedings adjourned indefinitely.
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