Nigerians Launch Social Media Campaign for Private School Teachers

 Olabisi Deji-Folutile

As Nigerian schools remain shut with many private school teachers being unpaid, some Nigerians have launched a social media campaign targeted at getting parents to assist these teachers financially or through donation of foodstuffs.

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The Nigerian government had closed all schools in the country in March to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus pandemic. While teachers on government payroll at both federal and state levels have continued to receive their salaries, their counterparts in the private sector have not been that fortunate.

Subsequently, the private school teachers, majority of whom, were last paid in March, have been struggling to survive.  Their employers have also been negatively impacted as most of them rely on income from school fees to pay their staff and for their own survival too.  Government has also warned schools not to commence the third term online or charge parents school fees for the term. Although some of them are doing some form of online lecture, many children are not enrolled as many parents do not see the point of paying since the children are not in school for their third term. Subsequently, both the school owners and their staff have been in financial distress occasioned by the pandemic.

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READ ALSO: NUT expresses concerns over non-payment of private school teachers’ salaries

On Monday, Nigerians took to the social media to solicit for assistance for the teachers. The message being circulated through WhattssApp reads: “Please call your children’s private school teachers, get their bank details and send something to them, no amount is too small, even if it’s N1, 000.

“Sincerely, most of them are going through a very hard, tough and depressing time! Food stuff too wouldn’t be a bad idea. May God bless you.”

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) had earlier expressed concerns over non-payment of salaries of teachers in private schools for months since schools were closed by the Federal Government due to the outbreak of the pandemic.

The National Treasurer of the union, Mr Segun Raheem, said that private school teachers deserved to be paid, adding that the NUT was making efforts to unionise them. He said though the effort had failed in the past, the NUT would not relent.

“The pandemic has really affected so many people – particularly when we talk of teachers in the private sector, so many of them have not received salaries since March,” he said.

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Before the Monday’s social media campaign, a group, Concerned Parents and Educators Network had also launched a fund raising scheme to help private school teachers. The founder of the group, Mrs Yinka Ogunde, said the group was working towards giving some teachers on the forum  a sum of N20,000 each. Donations came mainly from members of the group who had in the past given different kinds of palliatives to some of the teachers. Before the campaign was closed, close to N2m was raised to help teachers.

Some private school teachers who spoke to Franktalknow.com on condition of anonymity,  said they have not been paid since March. They are also not sure of what will happen to them should schools remain shut.  One of them said, “We don’t know when we will get salaries. If schools remain shut, it means we won’t be paid. I am doing everything possible to run away from teaching. Once I survive this, I am making a career  switch.”

Commenting on the development, the Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Anderson Ezeibe, said the Federal Government and the state governments ought to have rolled out palliatives targeted at helping private school teachers.

According to him, government was aware that the pandemic caused a lot of dislocation to private business, adding that the right thing to do is to extend policies to assist private school teachers.

He said, “ The Federal Government has been giving palliatives here and there. Private school teachers should qualify  to benefit from these palliatives knowing that they are major contributors to Nigeria’s educational system.

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“As a matter of fact, government should realise that these schools are shut down as a result of government’s policy. If government can provide assistance to the agric sector, what stops them from helping private school teachers in this difficult time? There should be deliberate policies by government to help these people.”

He said, it is not proper to lump the private schools with other businesses that government is trying to help through the CBN scheme for small and medium scale businesses, noting that  many school owners may not have the capital base required to benefit from such scheme.

He warned that government should appreciate the fact that the public schools cannot accommodate all the school-age children in the country, hence the need to prevent the private schools from eminent collapse post COVID-19. He said, “The future of millions of Nigerian children is tied to the health and survival of the private school system.”