Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti says his administration is putting modalities in place for the commencement of payment of the new minimum wage by the end of this month.
Governor Otti announced this on the occasion of the 2024 World Teachers Day Celebration with the Theme: “Valuing Teachers’ Voices: Towards A New Social Contract For Education”
He said that the new minimum wage is in addition to the 15,000 naira wage award already paid to Abia civil servants in the past 3 months.
He said that his administration declared a state of emergency in the education sector and introduced new incentives including an increase in the retirement age of teachers to 65 years and 40 years in Service.
Governor Otti said that his Government in addition banished all forms of discriminatory practices in payment of salaries and assured that regular payment of workers’ entitlements will continue to receive priority attention.
“Our administration understands the importance of education which explains why we prioritise it as one of the major pillars of our governance objectives.
“As the Chairman of NUT in the State said, we had since increased the retirement age of teachers in the State to 65 years or 40 years of service subject to health and willingness of individuals to remain in the field”.
“We have effectively banished all forms of discrimination in the payment of workers salaries and allowances” Governor Otti declared.
“Today, teachers in primary and secondary schools across the State get their salaries at the same time their counterparts in the civil service are paid.” Gov. Otti stated.
As part of plans to make teaching more attractive, the Governor said his administration has retrained about two thousand teachers in the primary school while teachers in the secondary school will commence their retraining by November this year.
Peoplesmind