Covid-19: FG Agrees to assist Private Schools
Juliet Uduji
The Federal Government has agreed to offset the salaries of private school teachers for the duration of the lock down.
The private schools to benefit are those up to date with their tax payments. The number of staff and salaries will be determined through their PFA to avoid fraud and falsification”
Single digits loans would be made available for school owners to cover the losses, Support private schools with safety kits necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19 within the school environment.
The President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Yomi Otubela, says the Federal government has agreed to pay the salaries of private school teachers that are being owed by their school management since the lockdown started in March.
A number of private school teachers have come out to cry for help as they have not been paid by their management since March when schools were shut down due to the Corona virus pandemic. The schools’ management insist they cannot pay salaries since they have also not made money by way of school fees.
Speaking on TVC today, Monday morning, July 13, Otubela said the association forwarded a proposal to the Economic Sustainability Committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, for the government to pay salaries of the private school owners and that an approval has been granted to the proposal by the Federal Executive Council.
”We have written to the Federal government to understand that these teachers are teaching Nigerian children and that they need to keep them and their families together during the lockdown.
So the Federal government has listened to our request. We requested that the teachers salaries in private schools should be taken over by the government during the months of the lockdown. We also requested for a single digit loan for private schools to cushion the effect of the COVID19. We requested for support for schools that have existing loans, that they (FG) should liaise on our behalf with the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN and CBN will liaise with commercial banks and other financial institutions to ensure that they give them soft landing in terms of moratorium to repay and reductions on interest rates.
We are already talking to them to know the modalities for the disbursement”.
He however pointed out that it is only private schools registered under its association that will benefit from the Federal government’s bailout.
“Buhari is a father to all. This is good because it will alleviate the sufferings private school teachers are currently going through. It will also expose private schools that have been shortchanging the FG by not paying taxes and those that do not comply with labor laws by creating a pension scheme for their staff.