Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
No fewer than 1, 000 teachers employed by the government of Anambra State, under the immediate past governor, Chief Willie Obiano, have asked the incumbent governor of the state, Prof Charles Soludo, to give them back their jobs.
The protesting teachers were recently sacked by the Anambra State Government with efforts being made to employ new ones.
The teachers in a protest on Tuesday said they were previously engaged by the Parents Teacher Association (PTA) of the various communities in the state before the Obiano administration converted their engagement as permanent staff in the state’s school system.
Thus, they protested the termination of their employment by the incumbent governor of the state, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.
The protesters blocked the entrance of the state House of Assembly in Awka, the state capital, displaying placards with various inscriptions.
Some of their placards read: “Give us back our jobs”, “Why terminate our appointments after seven months of work without pay?,” “We met the criteria, we were duly employed, “Please reinstate us” and “Gov Soludo reconsider your stand,” “Assembly please intervene and help save our jobs,” among others.
The spokesman for the teachers whose appointments were terminated, Mr. Uche Eze, explained that after their names were shortlisted by the Ministry of Education as candidates who passed teachers recruitment exercise on 3rd November 2021, they received letters of appointment to start work as permanent staff.
He disclosed that since then, they have worked for seven months waiting to be paid, only to be told by their principals and head-mistresses in May, to reapply for their conversion to permanent teachers.
Eze said, “We are teachers engaged by the PTA to address the acute shortage of teachers in state’s primary and secondary schools. Some of us had worked for over 10 years before the last administration decided to hold a recruitment and conversion exercise to make us permanent staff.
“About 1,000 of us were shortlisted and we got our appointment letters in November 2021 to resume fully but for over seven months we have not been paid and we have just been told that our appointments have been terminated.
“We were asked to go and re-apply in the ongoing online teachers’ recruitment. This is not fair, we were not paid off and we are stranded because they are sending us back to the labour market after we were duly employed.
“We are appealing to the Speaker of the House to use his offices to intervene in this matter and help us save our jobs,” he said.
Addressing the protesters, the Speaker of the House, Mr Uche Okafor, promised them he would discuss the matter with the governor.
Okafor said, “We have heard your complaints and appeals. As your representatives in the assembly, we are your ears and mouth piece, so whatever affects you, affects us.
“I want to assure you that we will speak for you by taking this matter to the governor and discuss it, so that you get that which is duly yours.”
