Date: 2019-10-08

The staff of the Model Basic School, Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, yesterday protested non- payment of their 36 months' salary.

The staff who were seen in front of the provost' office carrying placards with inscription such as '36 months unpaid salary, save our lives, we are dying, save the lives of our teachers', among others were there with some students of the school.

Speaking on behalf of other staff, one of the affected teachers, Mr Lawal Abdulrazaq, said the issue of unpaid salary started in 2012 and that up till now, nothing has been done to tackle it.

He said they wrote several letters to the state authority during the last administration and an agreement was reached for the state government to take over the school "but we didn't hear anything again".

"Our salary was changed to no scale level, a situation whereby we were not being paid on the level used by the college and not on grade level used by the state. But when we complained, a delegation was sent to screen and interview us and our data were collected, yet nothing was heard about it.

"When we went back, we discovered that the college said they cannot allow the state government to take over the school because it is a laboratory for the college and there is no way the laboratory can be separated from the college. The money we are generating from the school goes directly to the college and we still don't get salary and our infrastructure are dilapidated," Abdulrazaq said.

The staff it was learnt are 23 with 20 academic staff and three casual staff. Meanwhile, the Provost of the College, Professor Abdulraheem Yusuf, said he is aware of the problem and that he addressed them earlier about a meeting scheduled to hold between the management of the college and the ministry of tertiary institution before they started their protest.

"I was surprised when I heard that they were in front of my office protesting with the pupils because I already informed them about the meeting and urged to remain calm to know the outcome of the meeting. "It is a problem I inherited and I have tried to resolve it. It was the college problem but when I asked management why are they were not being paid by the college, they brought out a White Paper by a visitation panel set up by the government that they should be self-sustaining, but they have less than 100 pupils. "The panel also advised government to take over the schools both the secondary and primary sessions and that is what we will be discussing during the meeting, so I don't know why they still went ahead with the protest," the provost said.