Kogi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has directed primary schools Headmasters to furnish it with names and qualifications of teachers in their various schools as part of measures to identify the ghosts teachers among them.
Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of Kogi SUBEB, Mr, Stephen Akwu disclosed this in an interview with Peoples Daily on Wednesday in Lokoja.
He said that the Head Teachers had till Thursday next week to submit the list, in order to enhance immediate payment of salaries of teachers who have suffered untold hardship in the non-payment of salaries since March.
Mr.Akwu said the directive had become necessary to critically address the issue of ghost primary schools teachers in the state There is need, according to him, to ascertain the population of genuine and qualified teachers on the payroll of the state.
He lamented that various bio-metric data capturing and audit of teachers by the state government had failed due to what he called the “Nigerian Factor.”
The chairman noted that the issue of ghost teachers resulting in astronomical wage bill had stunted efforts of the state government to clear their salary arrears.
“We have a problem here; there are teachers who are not supposed to be there. There are teachers who are in Abuja working and their names are on the salary vouchers here.
“We want to remove people who are not real teachers. There is Nigerian factor here, somebody who is not a teacher but because he has somebody who knows somebody, his name is on the pay roll.
“These must be expunged. How can we pay the minimum wage to teachers with all these on the payroll”, he queried.
Mr.Akwu said the headmasters were ready to assist in the cleansing exercise, adding: “As we remove the bad eggs and clear the teachers, we will begin to send their salaries to them through e-payment.”
The IMC chairman assured that funds for March, 2014 salary of the teachers were available but would want to complete the weeding exercise before commencement of payment.
It could be recalled that primary school teachers in the state, though not on strike, have boycotted the classroom in the last three months over non-payment of salaries.
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