FG to pay 36-month arrears of Unity School teachers

The federal government has vowed to settle the 36-month salary arrears owed to some Unity College teachers.

Prof. Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, made the statement during the Mastercard Foundation’s three-day EdTech Conference in Abuja yesterday.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), 1,800 teachers at unity colleges have been owed salary and other allowances for the past three years.

Prof. Mamman stated that the files of the affected teachers are already with the Ministry of Finance.

“The issue of teachers’ salary is already with the Budget Office and Ministry of Finance. So hopefully, they will be paid.

“I can’t tell exactly when their money will be paid. We don’t pay in the Ministry of Education. But we have done the paper work. It is already in finance. Hopefully, very soon, they will get their money,” he said.

The Federal Ministry of Education hired these teachers as education officers in 2018, 2019, and 2020 and appointed them to schools across the country.

However, they were not paid due to logistic problems at the ministry’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) desk.

Other reasons provided for the non-payment included the ministry’s failure to transmit their files to the Budget Office for vetting and subsequent transfer to the Accountant-General’s office for approval.