1m private schools workers starve and Unable to afford basic needs, traumatized.

The plight of no less than one million workers comprising of teaching and non- teaching staff of private schools in the country is worsening following the continuous closure of schools as a result of the increasing coronavirus pandemic ravaging Nigeria and other countries of the world

According to Nigerian Pilot Weekend investigation, about 500,000 private school teachers and an estimated 500,000 non-teaching staff nationwide are currently in abject penury over nonpayment of salaries from their employers who are proprietors of various private schools in the country.

The paper gathered that while majority of the affected workers, teachers and non-teaching staff have tried to engage in other menial jobs to keep their families going, others have either been ejected from their homes for failing to pay rents, and a vast majority traumatized and in bad health conditions.

Speaking to the Nigerian Pilot Weekend, Secretary, Association of Private Schools Owners of Nigeria, APSON, Rev. Dr. Sunday Ikeaghe, noted that some Private School Teachers have taken to one form of menial job or the other to survive.

He explained that since March when the federal government announced the closure of schools, churches , mosques and other places, over 500,000 private school teachers in Nigeria have been struggling to get by because their salaries are tied to school fees paid by parents and since the closure of schools , no parent has been made to pay school fees.

Consequently, Ikeaghe said some of them as it is, are unable to meet their basic needs, pointing that the non-teaching staff colleagues, estimated to be 500,000, are in a worse situation.

“Many jobless teachers chose to go back to organizing lessons for School Children as hunger stare at them every day, some resort to hawking food with mobile make shift-trucks, some evicted from home s as a result of unpaid house rents,” he said.

Checks further revealed that some teachers even had to live with pay cuts of up to 40 per cent when the pandemic holidays started but was quickly withdrawn by proprietors when they discovered that the federal Government was not in a hurry to reopen the schools.

“We have received news of teachers who have been evicted from their rental houses due to their status as unpaid school teachers , schools that operate from rented premises also ejected,” Ikeaghe disclosed, expressing fears, nonetheless that many private schools may not reopen when schools are asked to.

“It is not easy for everybody. Coronavirus came without a notice. As an Association we have written several petitions to the government to cushion our teachers from the effects of the virus,” Ikeaghe said

He urged the federal government to include private school teachers in government’s palliative schemes

“We will appreciate the inclusion of the private school teachers in the government Covid-19 support scheme. We appeal to the government to look into the plight of these teachers, including supplying them with food,” he said. 

Recall not too long ago, that a private school teacher went crying in a viral video, lamenting their plight and calling on good spirited Nigerians and the government to come to their aids

The new corona virus (COVID-19) which scientists believe originated from China has shaken the entire world and brought the global economy to its knees.

It has claimed several lives and Nigeria has not been spared though not on the scale recorded in USA and other European Countries.

The threat of the virus has affected all three sectors of Nigeria’s economy, namely, agriculture, industry and services. The hardest hit includes education, hotels and tourism, restaurants, import and export trade to mention but a few.

President Muhammad Buhari after much public pressure took some measures which include closure of schools, churches and mosques; ban social gatherings the borders of Nigeria to stop the importation of the virus into the country.