Mixed Reactions Trail Oyo TESCOM's Handling of New Teachers
- Some drawbacks have been identified in the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) of Oyo State
- Three months after the Commission employed teachers in the post-primary schools in the state, the employees are yet to be fully integrated into the system in terms of payment of remuneration
- From Ibadan to Ibarapa and from Oke-Ogun to Ogbomoso, the new teachers told Legit.ng that TESCOM forced them to have new bank accounts, yet, they were not paid for about three months
Don't miss out! Join Legit.ng's Sports News channel on WhatsApp now!
Barely four months after TESCOM-employed teachers assumed duties in Oyo State, issue relating to manner in which the teachers are remunerated remain unresolved.
After rigorous exercise, the successful new teachers assumed duty on January 2, 2025. They were, thereafter, mandated by the Commission (TESCOM) to have accounts in the Commission’s assigned banks, typical of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Source: Facebook
Although the Commission has dismissed the agitation as baseless and unwarranted, findings by Legit.ng showed that the status quo remains.
Employed but penniless
Speaking with Legit.ng correspondent on condition of anonymity, some new teachers from different TESCOM-designated zones of the state lamented the hardship they went through by taking up the job because of their inability to make ends meet owing to non-payment of their salaries.
“Sincerely, it wasn’t easy going to work. We were demoralised as a result of non-payment of our salaries. The joy of any worker is to earn something. But the story is not [yet] so in our own case”, said a respondent from a zone in Ibadan
Another respondent from Oke-Ogun Zone narrated how she was just paid two months about a week earlier and how she had to travel to Ibadan to resolve the TESCOM-imposed account but without result:
“Maybe last week [this April], they paid for January and February, it’s remaining March. The account they opened for us, my own account is invalid. If I want to send money to the account it’s saying invalid account. So they asked me to supply alternative account so I sent them my personal account. I’ve sent the account like a month now since February when they started paying people and till last week they didn’t pay me so it was that last week that they paid for two months remaining March payment now.”
The new teacher recounted the stress she had to go through traveling to Iseyin and Ibadan from her own local government because of the imposed bank accounts that was (is still) not working:
“They just collected our BVN and other information and they generated account for us. They sent account number to us and asked us to go to the bank for activation, so I went to the First Bank branch in Iseyin and they said they cannot work on it. So, many of us went to Ibadan to activate the account. They now paid for two months to my alternative account remaining one month.”
It is the same story across the state
The impact of delay in salary payment was greatly felt in Ibadan, the state capital, just as the new teachers complained of similar experience in Ibarapa and Ogbomoso axes. In the state capital, there was more coordination among the dissatisfied teachers who had started issuing statements, expressing their frustration of working without being paid. One of the aggrieved teachers complained that:
“For the past three months, we have diligently fulfilled our duties, giving our time, energy, and commitment to our work. Yet, despite our hard work, we have not received the salaries we rightfully earned. “While some of our colleagues were paid, most of us have been living on borrowing from friends and foes. Yet TESCOM went to the media and broadcast the fake news."
Source: Twitter
NUT, TESCOM prevailed to avert the looming protest
Legit.ng gathered that the angry teachers in Ibadan and Oke-Ogun were set to protest but were prevailed upon by the Nigerian Union of Teachers and TESCOM officials.
A conversation between one of the leaders of the struggle and NUT, obtained by Legit.ng showed an executive of NUT asking the new teacher to
A source from Oke-Ogun recalled that:
"They [the teachers] wanted to protest, we opened a (WhatsApp) group for all us that have not been paid and we were all fed up so we wanted to protest. They now called some of us, they called them for a meeting so some of the TESCOM officials called them for a meeting, the people they called were like our leaders who wanted to lead the protest. So, since they called them, I don’t know if they paid them because the outcome of the meeting was that nobody should go out for the protest, that before April 15 they will pay everybody. The following week, after the meeting, they started paying some people; they paid few."
Response, but more has to be done
In response to agitations, some of the newly recruited were hurriedly and perhaps, miraculously paid. Some have been paid three months, while some received two months. A source who confided in Legit,ng told our correspondent that:
“It’s not only in my local government but in my school, we are seven (7) so they paid 2 people, and the 5 of us are yet to receive our salary. And 2 people have not received any salary at all. They paid 4 out of 5 for 2 months.
Meanwhile, as of the time (April 15) of filing this report, many of the teachers are still expecting to be paid.
The job is not unbearable, but the treatment is not friendly
The teachers who maintained that, although they had not encountered any unbearable challenge on the job, remuneration and how TESCOM mandated them to open accounts in specific banks are unimaginable.
As a TESCOM-appointed teacher, I don’t think the other category of teachers (SUBEB) have a problem, it’s only TESCOM. The work generally is not hard, but it’s the payment that’s causing issues because some people spend like 2,000 going to their place of work, so many have borrowed money, not paying us what makes the work somehow hard
Call to action
The teachers, however, appealed to Governor Seyi Makinde as well as those concerned to pay their salaries and stop treating them like people who have no voice.
Rights lawyer alleges 2-decade illegal mining in Oyo
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that For the past two decades, mining activities had been going on in Iwajowa Local Government Area of Oyo State, whereas, the conditions precedent to operating mining activities have not been met by the accused mining company.
Rights Lawyer, Mr Femi Aborisade, who has been a vanguard in the fight against the illegality of mining activities in Iwajowa Local Government of Oyo State, beamed a searchlight on the outlawed mining activities in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng.
PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!
Source: Legit.ng
Ibrahim Sofiyullaha (Editorial Assistant) Ibrahim Sofiyullaha is a graduate of First Technical University, Ibadan. He was the founder and pioneer Editor-in-Chief of a fast-rising campus journalism outfit at his university. Ibrahim is a coauthor of the book Julie, or Sylvia, written in collaboration with two prominent Western authors. He was ranked as the 9th best young writer in Africa by the International Sports Press Association. Ibrahim has contributed insightful articles for major platforms, including Sportskeeda in the UK and Motherly in the United States. Email: ibrahim.sofiyullaha@corp.legit.ng
Ridwan Kolawole (Oyo State Correspondent) Ridwan Kolawole has over a decade of journalism practice, covering politics, crimes/conflict, education, and social issues. He is a recipient of the Practical Action and UKaid travel grant for a tour of El Salvador on evidence-based crime prevention and control (2016). He is a serial winner of the Next Generation Social Science in Africa programme Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC, New York—2019, 2020 and 2022). For passion and knowledge mobilisation, Ridwan practices journalism and teaches it.
