The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Kaduna State has directed its member to begin indefinite strike today to protest the sack of 21,780 public primary school teachers.
This is contained in a January 4 notice of strike, signed by the union’s Assistant Secretary General, Adamu Anglo.
The teachers were sacked for allegedly scoring below the 75 per cent pass mark in the competency test organised by the government in June 2017.
The notice, circulated to union executives in the 23 local government areas, said a two-week ultimatum was earlier issued to the government to reverse its decision.
According to the union, the decision has become necessary after the government issued sack letters to the affected teachers after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The strike notice reads: “As a responsible union, we ventilated our grievances before the National Industrial Court, Kaduna, and the court, on December 4, granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the government from disengaging any teacher pending the determination of the case.
“The order was served to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, but surprisingly, he went on to order the distribution of letters of disengagement to the affected teachers, dated November 3, 2017.
“We, therefore, met on January 4, and unanimously resolved to embark on indefinite strike today.”
The notice also highlighted other unresolved issues with the government, such as compulsory retirement of secondary school teachers before their due date, as against the 35 years of service or 60 years of age provided by civil service rules.
Other issues include unpaid 2015 leave transport grant to 3,338 primary school teachers, as well as 2016 and 2017 leave transport grant to all public school teachers, despite deductions at source.
