The President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools in Nigeria, Yomi Otubela has revealed to the general public on Monday, 13th July 2020 that the Federal government has agreed upon dialogue to pay the salaries of Private School Teachers that are being owed by their school management and are in big distress since the lockdown started in March amidst the Covid19 pandemic.
As some school management insists they cannot pay salaries since they have also not made money by way of school fees since there is nothing being done so far in school, their employees have been on the receiving end of all the bankruptcy being faced as a result of the shut down of schools.
Otubela made this statement known while speaking on TVC News on the early hours of Monday, July 13, 2020. Otubela said the Association forwarded a proposal to the Economic Sustainability Committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, for the government to assist them by going out of their way and obligations to pay the salaries of some private school teachers in the country, and they are glad to announce that approval has been granted to the proposal by the Federal Executive Council for the implementation.
”We have written to the Federal government to understand that these teachers are teaching Nigerian children and that they need to keep them and their families together during the lockdown.
So the Federal government has listened to our request. We requested that the teachers salaries in private schools should be taken over by the government during the months of the lockdown. We also requested for a single digit loan for private schools to cushion the effect of the COVID19.
We requested for support for schools that have existing loans, that they (FG) should liase on our behalf with the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN and CBN will liase with commercial banks and other financial institutions to ensure that they give them soft landing in terms of moratorium to repay and deduction in the interest loan.
The Federal government has approved that they will take over the payment of teachers salaries.
The proposal was sent to the Economic Sustainability Committee headed by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and it was approved by the Federal Executive Council.
We are already talking to them to know the modalities for the disbursement”.
He however pointed out that it is only private schools registered under its Association that will benefit from the Federal government’s bailout.