Executive Secretary of Secondary Education Management Board, SEMB, Abia State, Sir Law Ogbonna has assured teachers in the state that their accumulated salaries arrears will be paid very soon as promised by the state government.
Sir Ogbonna in an interview with News Critic in Umuahia, maintained that in terms of payment of salaries, Abia state situation is not worse compared to other states of the federation. He attributed the delay in the payment of teachers’ salaries to shortfall in revenue allocation, adding that the government is working hard to address the situation.
He described Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as a man that keeps to his promises, saying that ‘’we have confidence in the governor and in his ability to ensure that the standard of education did not go down in the state’’.
‘’In terms of salaries the state government has promised that it is going to pay two months continuously until the backlog is offset and the teachers are happy with that.’’ He said the Management Board is working to know the actual strength of teachers in the state with the verification exercise it has embarked on.
Answering a question about teachers planned strike action, the Executive Secretary said teachers are not going to strike because they have been told that their salaries will be paid and they believed it.
News Critic reports that two students of Abia state origin, Franklin Ekene and Igban Emmanuel Chidiebube came out tops in the recently released result of the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME. However, JAMB registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede said that the two students aged 15 and 16 years, may not be accepted for admission in their respective universities of first choice.
However, respite may have come for the two brilliant students as the Chancellor of Gregory University Uturu, Prof Gregory Ibe has offered immediate admission into the institution with tuition free scholarship to the two best performed candidates.
The Chancellor therefore urged the parents of the Abia children to take steps by commencing early registration of their wards in any programme of their choice at the university.
