The teachers’ strike has, according to news reports, succeeded in shutting mostly public schools across the country. Private school’s teachers in most states of the federation were not part of the strike action. The story was however different in Kano State where the NUT Chairman, Comrade Danguguwa, went on air declaring strike action unilaterally, involving all schools including privately-owned. According to reports he had no courtesy of consulting the leader of private association in the state, Dr. I. Mijinyawa. Above all, he went on air abusing the leader of private schools, making unprintable allegations against him. The private school teachers were forced to close their schools by presumed members of NUT who allegedly recruited thugs that went round Kano town disrupting normal lessons in private schools. There were even reports of alleged violence and physical assault on teachers and school proprietors who were mostly unwilling to shut down their schools. Unconfirmed reports indicated that thugs purporting to be working under instruction of NUT Kano Chapter made a forceful entry into some privately-owned and run schools perpetrating violence, willful damage and arson in extreme cases. Had private schools owners not exercised restraint, there would have been violence in the state.

The uncomplimentary conduct of Kano NUT Chairman and its purported members has further confirmed that some supposed teachers in public schools are, indeed, glorified thugs that could not have been giving academic and moral instruction. This lends credence to the allegation that political thugs were, in some cases, employed as teachers by politicians in the state. The strike in Kano State, even if triggered by the NUT’s order, appeared to have a different agenda. NUT in Kano state was seemingly fighting government on one hand and private school proprietors on the other. The Kano-based private school operators were surprised by the NUT’s unprovoked attack on their teachers, students and properties. The Kano State private schools proprietors argued that neither they nor their teachers were part of the public teachers’ strike action. They further argued that their teachers were not members of the union. A source in Kano private schools association recalled that in the past their members were holding the association’s meetings in the NUT Kano office but were forced to relocate by the same union, saying they were not its members then. He asked, Why do they want us to support them now, is it a marriage of convenience? Accordingly, The Kano State Private Schools Association has written a letter of complaint to the state Commissioner of Police and instructed its lawyer to file a case against the NUT in the State High Court of Justice.

The current strike action embarked upon by the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT is indicative of the extent of crisis in the country’s education sector. The action which formally begun on July 1, 2008 was  aimed at pressing the demand of the public primary and secondary teachers for implementation of the proposed new teachers’ salary scheme popularly referred to as Teachers Salary Structure, TSS. According to the leadership of the Union , NUT as a body has been agitating for special salary scheme for fifteen years. The demand is, by all means, long overdue. If some public workers such as nurses and midwives were given special salary structure, teachers should also be considered. NUT is seemingly supported in this agitation by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC for obvious reasons.

The teachers are, at the moment, demanding for the release of an enabling circular, which will presumably state in detail how the new salary will look like. A few days back, NUT embarked on three-day warning strike, which did not apparently send strong signal to the government. Information gathered revealed that demand for special salary structure by teachers has been on since 1996. After the emergence of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the issue was revisited, and the federal government was wiling. The issue was about to be presented before the Federal Executive Council for deliberation and adoption when it was suddenly stood down following an order from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF. If that was the case, it was, indeed, provocative. Nigerian teachers are forced to ask question, and justifiably too, on why the sudden caution by the government. Sensitive as the issue of teachers’ salary increase, the federal government should not have allowed such a sensitive matter to reach this level, which is, of course, a point of crisis.

The sudden caution by the federal government on the Teachers’ Salary Structure was due to alleged protest by the Salaries and Wages Commission for alleged non-full involvement in the process, analysis and computation. The federal government was reportedly cautioned by Salaries and Wages Commission on the financial implication of full TSS implementation. The government was also alerted that teachers are employed by the three tiers of government that do not possess same financial muscles. Accordingly, there was supposed to be thorough analysis on the financial ability of each tier of government. Moreover, there is supposed to be a consensus over the new salary before it is eventually adopted. If care is not taken there might be a situation where employers of teachers could not cope with the demands of the TSS. For instance, if the federal government could pay its teachers, could all state governments implement the new salary structure? If the state government could, could the local governments across the country do so? Some observers believe if primary and secondary school teachers succeeded in getting new salary structure, it will most certainly trigger other public servants to demand for special salary structure as well. Had this been allowed it would have been a sure way of encouraging agitation for salary increase, and would have entrenched prolonged crises in the public sector. There is equally a justified fear of an intra-sector conflict that could as well be devastating. According to the Minister of State in charge of Education Ministry, even if government were to implement the new salary for teachers not all teacher in its payroll would be qualified to enjoy the new salary structure, which will bring another dimension to the crisis.

Salary enhancement will certainly improve teachers’ welfare by improving their earnings. But there is also need for improved performance by teachers. Experts on Nigerian education have reservation on the issue. There is no evidence indicating that when teachers pay is increased, it will commensurately improve performance and service delivery. More importantly, there is the issue of congestion in public schools occasioned by shortage of class rooms, furniture, textbooks, writing materials and essential instructional materials none of which elicited teachers’ strike in the past. Are the striking teachers truly concerned about education or their private pockets?

Another issue worthy of consideration is the quality of teachers and their attitude to the teaching profession. There are few qualified teachers in public schools compared to demand for them. In situation where there are, their attitude to work is not encouraging and their morale is often low. Therefore, salary is not the only issue to address problem of education. It is not only salary that boosts teachers’ morale and attitude to work. One is supposed to like one’s work and be proud of it. If one only takes to teaching profession as a last resort, one would hardly work to excel. In Nigerian context, most teachers, even when trained as educators, consider teaching profession as a stepping stone which they take to when there is no other option. Such teachers are more than willing to leave the profession and pick any other employment even in reality it is less noble and prestigious.