Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has called for an amendment to the 1999 Constitution for basic education to be a core responsibility of the state governments instead of the local governments.
The National President of the union, Comrade Audu Amba, made the call in Abuja, at the ongoing First Quadrennial delegates’ conference of NUT’s Federal Wing.
Amba said that the first nine years of basic education should be made a core responsibility of the state governments. He said, while the union was not against local government autonomy, the funding of primary education should not be the responsibility of the tier of government.
“It is only when the funding of basic education is made a core constitutional responsibility of state governments that the toxic phenomenon of non-payment of salaries of primary school teachers will be a thing of the past across the states of the federation,’’ he said
Amba added that the funding of primary education by local governments had been affecting learning and teaching at the foundational level of education. He, therefore, called on the Federal Executive Council to initiate an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to address the concerns.