The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has stated that the basic education of students should be the sole responsibility of state governments and not local governments, News About Nigeria reports.
The National President of the Union, Comrade Audu Amba, stated this while speaking at the ongoing First Quadrennial delegates’ conference of NUT’s Federal Wing in Abuja.
He noted that the first nine years of basic education should be made a core responsibility of the state governments, adding that it will minimise the phenomenon of non-payment of salaries of primary school teachers.
He, however, noted that the Union is not against local government autonomy but maintained that the funding of primary education should not be the responsibility of that tier of government.
“It is only when the funding of basic education is made a core constitutional responsibility of state governments that the toxic phenomenon of the non-payment of salaries of primary school teachers will be a thing of the past across the states of the federation,” he stated.
Amba added that the funding of primary education by local governments has been affecting learning and teaching at the foundational level of education.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to initiate an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to address the concerns and make basic education a core responsibility of the state governments instead of the local governments.
Recall that a few years back, Michael Olukoya, the then-president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), stated that the country would be breeding more illiterates than literates if the federal government handed over primary education to local government councils.
