Cross River Gov’t Warns LG Chairmen Against Owing Teachers

Cross River State Commissioner for Education, Stephen Odey, and associate professor, has warned chairmen of 18 local government areas in the state to be weary of the consequences of owing teachers’ salaries.

Odey called on the chairmen to prioritise regular payment of salaries of the teachers to boost their productivity.

The commissioner gave the charge during a session with the chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), LGA chairmen and his ministry in Calabar, on Tuesday.

He noted that payment of teachers’ salaries on regular basis was crucial to their increased productivity.

“No matter how small that the salary is, if it comes very regularly, it becomes so important,” Odey said.

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He stressed that the judgement of the Supreme Court has made it mandatory for council chairmen to prioritise payment of teachers’ salaries on regular basis because money of teachers was lumped into accounts of council chairmen.

Odey averred that Cross River State SUBEB recorded a lot of achievements when he served the Board as chairman, stressing that the stride was possible as a result of prompt and regular payment of teachers’ salaries.

“I consulted an ICT expert that developed an app for me to monitor payment of salaries of teachers. By mere click of a button in my office, I will see all the salaries paid to the teachers on my dashboard,” he said.

Odey stressed that with that strategy, the board was able to cause the banks to live up to their responsibility of prompt released of funds to teachers.

“Ensure that your account directors fashion out modalities for salaries to be paid before the end of the month. Don’t allow the fate of your teachers only to banks to determine when salaries are to be paid.

“For us in the ministry, ours is to formulate policies, that is why we are working tirelessly to ensure that things are done differently,” he maintained.

In his remarks, the Chairman, Association of Council Chairmen in the state who is also the chairman of Yala local government area, Mr Yibala Inyang, solicited for a free-hand to be given to chairmen to engage more teachers in their council areas to overhaul education sector in their council areas.