Teachers of FG colleges on PTA payroll

Hon. Minister for Education - Adamu Adamu

About 80 per cent of teaching staff in the 104 federal government colleges, otherwise known as unity schools, are on the payroll of Parents Teachers Association (PTA).

This was disclosed yesterday by principals of the unity schools during the budget defense of their respective schools before the House of Representatives committee on Tertiary Education in Abuja.

Some of the affected teachers, according to the principals, were disengaged following a directive by the federal ministry of education barring all unity colleges from charging above N5,000 per term as PTA levy.

Chairman of the South West Unity Schools’ Principals, Dr Liman Amodu, who spoke on behalf of other principals, noted that while the schools had to obey the directive from the ministry, it was at the expense of qualitative education for the students.

“This is the situation in most of the schools. There may be a little exemption, but this is the general problem. In most cases, about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the teaching staff are on the payroll of the PTA, but we try to comply because we cannot violate the directive from the minister,” she stated.

She explained that this is more so when it is considered that employment of teachers are effected by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) and the Ministry of Education.

Reacting to the stunning revelation, chairman of the committee, Hon. Zakari Muhammad, who condemned the unfortunate situation also decried poor funding for feeding of the students.

The committee chairman observed that funds were usually not disbursed to the school for feeding until about three months in arrears.

This, according to Zakari, puts the schools at the mercy of contractors and at the same time, creates avenue for compromising standards.

“Except they want to be economical with the truth, no principal here received funding for feeding in advance, the students are at the mercy of the contractors and most times, the contractors compromise standards,” he said.

Zakari directed the principals to compile a list of unfenced unity schools for prompt and immediate action by the government.