We can confirm that primary school teachers in Cross River State have embarked on a strike action to press for the payment of a four months backlog of salaries owed some of them by the state government.
While the Cross River State chapter of the National Union of Teachers, NUT, has been unable to get the state government to live up to her responsibilities, the resolve to embark on the strike action appears to be the last ditch throw of the dice to force government to live up to her responsibilities.
One teacher in the primary school system who spoke with www.calitown.com regretted that the strike action has become imperative “…as government cannot expect us to work for free when we have responsibilities to cater to. All of these means that the primary school system in the state will suffer and this should ordinarily not be the case”.
It was impossible at press time to speak with Goddy Ettah, the state Commissioner for Education, but sources in the Education ministry say they are aware of the situation and hope that government can pay the teachers their salaries. Primary schools in Cross River State will accordingly remain shut throughout the period of the strike action, we were informed.
