Students beg Amosun to pay teachers to enable them return to school

Some students in public primary and secondary schools in Ogun on Thursday called on Ibikunle Amosun, governor of the state, to attend to the demands of striking workers in the state.

The students, who spoke in Abeokuta, capital of the state, described the strike as “very unfortunate”.

Samson Asade, an SSS 2 student of African Church Grammar School, Abeokuta, called for early resolution of the crisis.

He said his colleagues in private schools were already ahead, urging the government to cooperate with the workers to end the strike.

“I am not happy with the strike, our teachers too are not happy. That is why am appealing to the government to find a lasting solution to this crisis as soon as possible,” he said.

“The private schools are already ahead of us and when we resume our teachers will be rushing us so as to cover the syllabus and this is not too good for our education.”

Another student, Ife Salako of Catholic Comprehensive High School in Abeokuta, said the strike would expose some of the students to activities that could destroy their future.

Salako appealed to both the government and labour unions to reach concrete agreements and put an end to the strike.

Ajobiewe Hammed, an SSS 1 student of African Church Grammar School, said labour unions should look for other means to press home their demands rather than downing tools.

“The unions should always look for other means to press home their demands instead of going on strike all the time because the strike will affect the students more,” Hammed said.

“Government should not toy with the welfare of civil servants; they have families too that they feed every day.

“We want government to give them their cooperative deductions, gratuities, salaries and I pray that God should help the governor to deliver on his promises.”

Students from other primary schools said they were optimistic that the strike would soon be over.

Workers in Ogun,under the aegis of Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, embarked on indefinite strike on October 20 over government’s failure to meet their demands.