Crisis looms in Benue schools, NUT warns

By Tor Vande-Acka / Makurdi
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Benue State has warned of the impending crisis in primary and secondary schools in the state beginning from 2014/2015 session in September.
The union also said as a result of the primary schools’ strike most of the pupils in the state have turned hawkers or were moving about aimlessly.

The Chairman of the Gboko chapter of the NUT, Charles Karamo Abur, gave the warning while speaking with newsman in Makurdi on Wednesday. He pointed out that since it is the primary schools that feed the secondary schools; most secondary schools in the state would not be able to get their full intake for the next session.
“If you look at most of the villages they don’t have access to private education; they depend solely on these public schools,” he stated.
On the other hand, he observed that since primary schools in the state would not be able to graduate those for secondary schools, then the intake for primary schools would also be over-bloated.
“All these (primary six) pupils have not been able to take their final examinations. So it’s a serious minus on their part and they are going to wait for another session,” he lamented.
He said even if the strike were called off today, it means that pupils that are expected to be in secondary school by September which is the beginning of another calendar year would have been stagnated and would never be able to recover the one year of their lives they have lost.
Abur contended that although some parents have moved their wards to other private schools to take their final examinations, the shortage for new intakes into secondary schools would be very high.
The reason, he explained, is because it is the primary schools that feed the secondary schools.
Abur also noted that despite the shortage of primary teachers earlier faced in the state, Benue might have to contend with shortage of teachers after the strike as some of them may have moved to private schools.
He appealed to the state government to implement the minimum wage for primary school teachers so that normalcy would be restored.