Private school owners: Only few teachers benefitted from COVID-19 intervention
President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Chief Yomi Odubela, said the Federal Government only selected a few private school teachers for the payment of salary arrears during the months schools were shut down to curtail the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
He said preliminary sampling indicated that 10 teachers in one out of every 100 private schools benefited from the Federal Government’s intervention.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had in August disclosed the government’s plan to create “pay roll” support for private school teachers and artisans to cushion the economic effect of the pandemic.
Speaking to Saturday PUNCH during the week, Odubela said the government had started paying some select teachers in some select private schools.
He said, “They are paying the few schools they selected based on their own yardsticks out of some schools that were able to register online within the short period they gave. About two weeks was given for registration. A whole lot of schools were unable to register because the site was not connecting.
“We are still gathering statistics to know how many schools actually benefited in the whole country. They promised to pay for three months. They promised to pay only 10 teachers per select school and each teacher would collect N30,000 to N50,000 per month. Some people have actually collected for the first month.”
Odubela stated that the association was gathering records so it could formally lodge complaints to the government over the exercise.
He added, “From the complaints we got so far, it is not impressive. With our random check, one out of about 100 schools collected.”
NAPPS President also expressed fear that schools might be shut down again nationwide in light of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country.
He, however, predicted tougher times if it occurred, saying that private school proprietors and teachers had yet to recover from the impact of the first lockdown.
But the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, faulted NASPPS’ allegation, saying it was untrue that a few select private schools benefited from the Federal Government’s Payroll Support Scheme.
He said, “There is no such thing as ‘selective’ and for those who follow, the Buhari administration has demonstrated that it is committed to a transparent, fair and accountable manner in the disbursement of public funds, especially with regard to programmes like this designed for the people. Punch
