Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has stated that qualified teachers in primary schools across Borno State will soon be paid a minimum wage of N30,000, as opposed to the current situation in which some teachers are paid as little as N11,000 due to the activities of ghost teachers.
This was stated by Zulum at the Government House in Maiduguri yesterday when he inaugurated the reconstituted board of the Borno State Universal Basic Education Board, which now has a new Executive Chairman, permanent and non-permanent members. Former members of the UBE board’s tenures had come to an end, necessitating the reconstitution.
The reconstituted board has Professor Bulama Kagu as the Executive Chairman, Hon. Abubakar Mai Deribe as a permanent member, 1; Alhaji Sadiq Abdallah as a permanent member, 2 and Habu Daja Aliyu as a permanent member, 3 alongside representatives of stakeholder ministries.
“One major issue in Borno’s primary education system today is the welfare of teachers. It is pathetic that there are teachers who are still collecting between N13,000 and N11,000. I want to assure, that despite economic challenges, we are working to ensure that every qualified teacher in Borno State earns a minimum of N30,000 which is the national minimum wage” Zulum said.
A number of unqualified teachers identified during assessments who are trainable will be sent to professional teacher training to learn skills and methodologies that will help them teach more effectively, according to the Governor.
Those who are unable to be trained will be transferred to other departments as non-academic staff in schools, according to him.
Retrenchment, including of untrainable teachers, was ruled out by Zulum to avoid adding to the already high unemployment rate, which has social implications.
Ada Peter
