Enugu: Ugwuanyi Swells Wage Bill with 1,500 Teachers

In keeping with the commitment of his administration to the welfare of the workers, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has injected 1,500 teachers to shore up the wage bill of the state. The administration has a reputation of approving the 13th month salary for workers in the state as an added boost to always celebrate Christmas.

Governor Ugwuanyi has accordingly directed the state Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) to recruit additional 1,500 primary school teachers to enhance basic education in the state.

This is happening at a time most state governors are growing goose pimples over their inability to pay the N30,000 new minimum wage. They are claiming that states will go bankrupt if forced to pay the new wage, warning that it might lead to retrenchment of workers.

As a way out, they proposed that the Federal Government should shed some of its revenue in their favour so they could be able to absorb the financial implication of the impending increased wage bill.

However, the Ugwuanyi administration has also approved the sum of N252,456,917.67 for the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) to pursue the re-accreditation of the institution’s courses whose prior accreditation had expired.

Education Commissioner, Prof. Uche Eze, who made this development public said the basic requirement for the recruitment is National Certificate of Education (NCE), adding that the candidates must have teaching background and would accept to reside and teach in the rural communities.

While stressing that Governor Ugwuanyi, through his grassroots development initiatives, has provided in the rural areas, some amenities that attract people to urban centres, he pointed out that the administration had recruited over 4000 teachers since its inception, to create jobs and improve the standard of learning in the state.

According to Eze, Ugwuanyi is committed and determined to ensure that teachers continue to be available at the basic education level so that our children will benefit from the investment that the state government is making in the education sector, adding, ‘’a good number of our teachers at the primary school level have retired and some lost to death’’, noting the recruitment exercise was to fill the vacuum created to ensure availability of teachers at the classrooms for effective teaching and learning.

Continuing, he said government has directed ENSUBEB to make arrangement for the recruitment of additional one thousand five hundred teachers to ensure that those who are qualified are appropriately placed so that our children will continue to benefit”.

On IMT, he disclosed that the fund was approved sequel to a presentation by the Governing Council and management of the institution, which informed government of the need for the re-accreditation of the courses on the premise that ‘’when a course is accredited, after five years, that course needed re-accreditation’’.

‘’Since the inception of this administration, government has invested so much in IMT because he believes that IMT is the prime institution in this state and that he has to do whatever it takes to make sure that he brings IMT back to its former glory. Last year about N1.00 billion was invested in infrastructural development. We also released funds earlier for the accreditation but because accreditation is a continuous process, as the programmes expire, a re-accreditation is expected’’, the education commissioner said.

Meanwhile, the state’s Commissioner for Gender Affairs and Social Development, Princess Peace Nnaji, says the state government has approved the establishment of 12 courts (lower and high courts) to deal with issues that concern the implementation of the Child Rights Law.

According to her, government has also approved the appointment and inauguration of formidable men of integrity in Enugu State as members of a committee that will drive cases that are related to adoption and fostering in Enugu State, in the newly approved courts.

She said the Ugwuanyi administration through a Committee on Adoption and Fostering headed by Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, has recorded tremendous achievements in curtailing the excesses of child trafficking, illegal adoption and baby factory, saying: Before 2015, the issue of child/baby factory was everywhere in the state.

The commissioner said the governor has equally approved that ‘’we will have meeting with all the hospitals in Enugu to make sure that they key into what we are doing’’, under the corporate social responsibility act, pointing out that the adoption committee through the instrument of the government was ‘’able to stop the nefarious activities that were going-on at the New Artisan Market, Enugu where children are being trafficked, sold and engaged in prostitution.’’

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