THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is planning to extend the academic calendar for public primary schools to enable pupils to recoup the time lost during the three-month-old strike embarked by their teachers.
According to Daily Trust, a senior official at the FCT Education Secretariat confirmed that plans were underway to extend the ongoing third-term academic session for public primary schools.
“We are already discussing it, and the secretariat will meet with the NUT to come up with something that will be helpful to the pupils who have been home for so long,” the official reportedly stated.
The ICIR reported that the FCT branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) suspended its three-month strike on Tuesday night and instructed members to resume academic activities immediately.
The Local Education Authority Schools in the FCT were shut down towards the end of the second term in March when teachers embarked on strike.
Their grievances included the government’s failure to implement the new minimum wage and pay salary arrears, which led to pupils abandoning their second-term examinations midway and remaining out of school until the strike was called off.
However, the resumption comes just two weeks before the original July 25 end date for the third term, according to the Education Secretariat’s academic calendar.
In the latest update, the FCT Education Secretariat also emphasised the urgent need to provide support for primary six pupils.
“Something must be done to help those in primary six so that they will be able to qualify for admission into Junior Secondary School (JSS) in September. Without these arrangements, they won’t be able to enter JSS 1 this year,” the official explained.
Similarly, Chairman of the FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Suleiman Hassan, reportedly indicated that an extension of the academic calendar was being considered for public primary schools due to the prolonged closure.
The ICIR reported that NUT said it suspended the strike following a State Wing Executive Council meeting held after the intervention of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, who approved the release of N16 billion to settle part of the outstanding salaries.
The NUT noted that while the minister reaffirmed that paying FCT primary school teachers was the area councils’ responsibility, he acknowledged their limited funds and approved N16 billion, six months of 10 per cent FCT IGR to support June’s new minimum wage payment and cover 60 per cent of nine months’ arrears.
The union stated that after thorough deliberation on the offers and the minister’s willingness for the FCTA to take over teachers’ salary payments, it resolved to suspend the strike following the release and disbursement of the N16 billion to the teachers’ accounts.
The ICIR reports that in addition to the teachers, primary healthcare workers and their counterparts in the six area councils in the FCT embarked on strike in March this year.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.