MORE WOES FOR NIGERIA'S PUBLIC EDUCATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001651 SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INR, AF/W PLEASE PASS USTR FOR AGAMA DOL FOR SUDHA HALEY E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2018 TAGS: PGOV ELAB PREL KISL EAID NI SUBJECT: MORE WOES FOR NIGERIA'S PUBLIC EDUCATION REF: ABUJA 1645 Classified By: Political Counselor James P. McAnulty for reasons 1.4. ( b & d). -------------- BROKEN AGREEMENTS -------------- ¶1. (C) On September 4, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) General Secretary John Odah told LabOff that NUT (an NLC affiliated union) was on the verge of shutting down the public primary and secondary education system over GON failure to honor its 2008 agreement on a 27.5 percent salary increase for all of Nigeria's teachers. The agreement stipulated that the governors of all 36 states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, would immediately implement the wage increase. However, the GON reneged on the agreement, leading to a five-week nationwide strike by teachers in August 2008. At the intervention of the Governors' Forum, teachers halted the 2008 strike, as all 36 governors agreed to meet with them and set a September 1, 2009, deadline to begin implementing the TSS increase. -------------- STATES NOT HELPFUL -------------- ¶2. (C) According to the NLC, only 17 of 36 states had implemented the agreement as of August 31, 2009. States failing to honor the deadline are Abia, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Edo, Delta, Enugu, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kogi, Imo, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba. ASUU Chairman Ademola Aremu told LabOff on September 4 that many of Nigeria's wealthy and political elite either send their children to expensive private schools outside the country or own many of country's private schools. "This," he declared, "combined with strong evidence of state level corruption, makes it obvious that there is no incentive to improve the quality of education for Nigeria's poor." According to U.N. and national statistics, more than 60 per cent of Nigerian parents cannot afford to send their children to private schools, and instead their children attend public primary and secondary schools where teachers go for months without pay and proper resources. -------------- TEACHERS NOT HOPEFUL -------------- ¶3. (C) Benue State Treasurer of NUT, Christiana Nongoatse, claimed the Federal government made budget provisions to cover the wage increase in its state funding allocations, and blamed the states for not honoring the agreement. She also said government failure to honor agreements and the dwindling purchasing power of NUT members have produced most labor disputes. Nongoatse admitted that the on-going strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a major inspiration for NUT. Veronica Hinga, a teacher with the Government Special Science School in Makurdi and a member of the local NUT chapter, expressed doubt to PolSpecialist about state governor sincerity after only four showed up for an emergency meeting in late August convened by Minister of Labor and Productivity Adetokunbo Kayode. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (C) Nigeria's creaky public education system could ill afford nationwide strikes shutting down primary and secondary schools as well as universities. In mid-July, at the peak of the "Boko Haram" crisis in northern Nigeria, Chairman of Nigeria's House Committee on Education Farouk Lawan stated that "poverty and the lack of education are the cause of the sectarian crisis ravaging the northern part of the country." ABUJA 00001651 002 OF 002 Leaving hundreds of thousand of students out on the streets would be a poignant reminder of the GON,s inability to provide basic essential services to its citizenry. END COMMENT. ¶5. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos. MCCULLOUGH