The Nigeria Union of Teachers in Niger on Monday demanded an increment of retirement age for teachers in the state government’s employ from 60 to 65 years.
The state Chairman of NUT, Ibrahim Umar, told newsmen that the demand was part of resolutions at the end of the union’s Executive Council meeting in Minna.
Umar also urged Governor Abubakar Bello to initiate an executive bill to facilitate the increment of the retirement age for teachers and that of years of service from 35 to 40 years.
He appealed to the government to recruit more teachers to fill the vacancies created by deaths, retirements and movements of teachers to other professions.
According to him, the population of teachers in the state has reduced from 30,000 to less than 27,000 due to deaths and retirements, among other factors.
The chairman also called for the promotion of teachers in both primary and secondary schools.
Umar praised the state government for the regular payment of teachers’ salaries and particularly urged it to promote the teachers whose elevation had been overdue.
He said: “We want the state government to accord priority attention to the provision of instructional materials to schools, so as to make teaching and learning more effective and efficient.
“National minimum wage has to do with all workers; no union will be exempted from the strike.
“Teachers are part of the NLC; so we will join the strike if it is declared.”
According to Umar, the Teachers’ Micro-finance Bank, established with a capital base of N100 million, now has branches in all the 25 local government areas of the state.
He said that more than 20,000 teachers were currently benefiting from the services of the bank.
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