Some Primary School teachers in Cross Rivers State who were demoted in 2016 by the State Universal Basic Education Board (CR-SU EB) for not having teaching qualifications have protested non-payment of their salaries for six years.
While speaking with Journalists, one of the teachers, who spoke on behalf of the protesters, said they had been stagnated by the board for too long.
She said some of them have rectified some of the issues for which they were demoted, yet the board had refused to listen to them.
She further stated that “We are stagnated because of the demotion. Over 2000 of us were affected across the state”.
“We have not been paid since 2016 and many have died due to hardship. Some are receiving alerts far below their monthly salaries while some of us don’t even receive anything”.
“We have not been promoted either and we are still teaching on an empty stomach.”
All the teachers insisted that they must be paid the arrears for the six years that the board owed them as well as promotion arrears.
The teachers however commended the state governor, Ben Ayade who they said had earlier directed the SUBEB to address all the issues arising from the 2016 exercise.
In a reaction to the teacher’s demands, the Secretary of SUBEB, Mr Cyril Itam said the board was awaiting the outcome of the audit report on the matter from the office of the Auditor General of the Local Government Service Commission.
He said “In November last year, we called all those who had remedied their problems to come and they went through screening to ascertain their current status”.
“The report of the screening is with the Auditor General of the Local Government Service Commission. So, the issues are being sorted out.”
