A socio-cultural group and the umbrella body of sons and daughters of Ilorin, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressives Union (IEDPU) on Sunday urged the Kwara state government to prioritise payment of teachers and councils workers above execution of capital projects in order to alleviate the suffering of the affected workers.
The group also advised the government to put on hold capital projects, especially non-revenue- yielding ones, to enable it clear salary arrears of teachers at all level.
The state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, had at several fora said the payment of basic schools teachers and local government employees is the responsibility of various local governments.
Teachers in both primary and post-primary schools in the state are being owed salaries while workers in the 16 local government councils in the state have not been paid for over five months now.
The IEDPU lamented the rot in both primary and junior secondary schools across the state due to non-payment of teachers’ salaries for about seven months.
The National President of the group, Alhaji AbdulHamid Adi disclosed this in Ilorin yesterday at a news conference held at the main state secretariat of the union, Geri- Alimi area, Ilorin.
According to him, “the state government should be ready to forgo any other thing for the sake of education”.
He said, “No capital project is far more important than the education of our children. Government ought to be worried that teachers in Basic Schools are not paid salaries despite the fact that SUBEB regularly receives its allocation”.
