Cost Of Living Crises: Teachers worry over FG's proposed salary increase

 Many teachers are worried the newly proposed salary increase by the federal government for public servants may not necessarily be the panacea to addressing the high cost of living in the country.

Some of the teachers who spoke with BusinessDay expressed their fears that the proposed salary increase will not solve the problems of the high cost of living faced by teachers except the government takes time to address other biting challenges such as accommodation, health, and training, among others.

Mercy Nnokam, a staff of the Rivers State ministry of education applauded the federal government for the idea which she believes will help cushion the effects of the high cost of living to an extent.

“It’s going to help a lot of teachers, the motivation is overdue, if teachers are well motivated, many of them won’t be migrating abroad for the teaching profession,” she said.

Nnokam decried the poor working condition of teachers in Nigeria which she said is damping the zeal and morals of many professional teachers, hence, many of them would abandon their duties for side-hustles to enable them to meet family demands.

She pointed out the fact that poor condition of service is the reason many teachers are leaving the country.

“The zeal to teach is no longer there for many professional teachers because of the poor remunerations and condition of service given to them in Nigeria,” she said.

She advocated that more incentives should be made available to teachers such as giving them housing loans, health insurance, training, and retraining teachers among others to bring them up to the global standard.

“The government should give more room for training and retraining. Let them appreciate us in all ways; we’ll remain and jappa,” she said.

Omosebi Abiola, a public secondary school teacher in Lagos State does not see any reason to be excited over the proposed salary increase yet, because according to her implementation is the main thing and not just talk.

“Well, it’s still a rumour until it is implemented and hopefully Lagos State will follow suit,” she said.

Abiola explained that most times these increments are based on basic salary alone, and for those in the middle cum lower levels, it means nothing in the face of the value of the naira.

However, she reiterated that the tax will automatically increase and that it will not be charged on basic salary alone but including all other allowances, which at the end of the day will make nonsense out of the increment.

Ukamaka Ajayi, a teacher with the Lagos State ministry of education would rather assume the ‘wait-and-see’ approach as the state government is yet to make known its position on that.

“Let’s wait and see. Lagos State made the same promise some time ago, and we did not see anything till today,” she said.

Benedicta Eboh, a teacher in a private school sees the move as a good one, but only if the increase will be enough to meet up with the current prices of goods.

Glory Akinsola, a teacher in a mission school would have loved to see a situation whereby the government increments can also reflect on private school owners and staff.

“Well, the federal government’s budget has never been a parameter for private teachers’ salaries, though a laudable development.

“However, if private proprietors are approached with this, their response would be: “Is it the federal government that powers the school generator and other expenses in the course of the school year?” Private school teachers only hope for better upgrading per time,” she said.

Last week, Chris Ngige, the minister of labour and employment recently said that the federal government will soon make a pronouncement on salary increase for civil and public servants to cushion the effect of rising inflation.

Ngige disclosed that the presidential committee on salaries was already doing a review and was expected to come up with salary adjustments in the New Year.

“The commission is mandated by the Act establishing them to fix salaries, wages, and emoluments in not only the public service.”

“As we enter the New Year government will make some pronouncements in that direction,” he said.

By Charles Ogwo