BEVERLY HILLS, May 11, (THEWILL) – Primary school teachers in Bayelsa have expressed disappointment over the non-implementation of promotion increments pledged by Governor Douye Diri beginning with their April salaries.
The state government had promised to commence the implementation of promotion increments for primary school teachers who are in the services of local governments by augmenting their payroll with about N200 million.
It was learnt that the payment of promotion increments for primary school teachers was stalled since 2013.
Mr Igelege Samuel, who spoke on behalf of the teachers in Ogbia Local Government Area (LGA), said on Tuesday, in Yenagoa, that primary school teachers who awaited the increment in their April salary were disappointed.
He said that the approval granted by the state Governor to commence the implementation of promotion increments had boosted the morale of teachers whose income had remained stagnated for more than eight years.
He said: “The Governor of Bayelsa had listened to our cry and shown his compassion by making funds available to assist the local governments to pay; but we were disappointed that just a handful out of over 400 teachers got the increment.
“Those of us who were left out happened to be in the majority and we are worried and demand to know what led to this.
“We remain grateful to the Governor who intervened to end our stagnation, the primary teachers in Bayelsa have been earning the same salary since 2013 even though they are promoted when due.
“So the promotions in the past eight years have been merely cosmetic and have no financial implication on the monthly take home pay and that is what theis governor has addressed but we have not seen the money.”
More than 100 of the affected teachers had gathered at the residence of the Account Supervisor for Ogbia LGA, Mr Yague James, to submit their promotion letters to facilitate the implementation.
James had addressed the aggrieved workers and urged them to submit their documents to ensure that those who were omitted would be captured in the implementation of the promotion increment.
He explained that the updated records, including promotion records were required to compute the new salary scale of the teachers.
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