By Awayi Kuje
Karu (Nasarawa), Aug. 18, 2020 Private school teachers in Kabayi area in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State have lamented over the continuos closure of schools following the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
Some of the teachers, who spoke when the team from the Media Advocacy West Africa (MAWA) Foundation visited the area on Tuesday, decried the untold hardships they were facing due to non-payment of salaries for over five months.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that MAWA foundation, with support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), is implementing a project tagged “Human Right Abuse and Economic Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown in Communities”.
The teachers, who said private schools solely relied on school fees of pupils and students to pay it’s workers, called on the Federal Government to put in place the modalities that would fast track the reopening of schools.
Mrs Gloria Ngwobia, a staff of Kings Crown International School, Kabayi, said that she had not received salaries for the last five months.
Ngwobia lamented that life had been very difficult for her and her family since schools were shut down.
“The advent of COVID-19 has stagnated a lot of things; it has also inflicted huge hardships particularly on private school teachers.
“Schools are still closed, we have not been paid for over five months and this has thrown many of us into serious hardships.
“We are calling on the federal government to fast track the process and ensure all schools are reopened to enable us make a living,” she urged.
Another private school teacher, Miss Joyce Samuel, told MAWA team that she basically survives on begging and the goodwill of friends.
Samuel, who decried that a lot of private school teachers were languishing in hunger and squalor, called on government to intervene in order to ameliorate the worsening situation.
“Private school teachers are the most hit by this pandemic, and considering the kind of work we do, the government needs to have serious consideration for this category of workers.
“Education is the foundation of every society and the quality of education a nation gets is dependent on how teachers are being taken care of,” she said.
