• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Taraba begins payment of rural teachers’ allowances

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The Taraba State government is poised to pay Rural Teachers Allowances (RTA) as a source of motivation for teachers working in rural communities.
Yakubu Agbaizo, Executive Chairman of the Taraba State Primary Education Board (TSUBEB) made this known while speaking to BusinessDay correspondent on Friday in Jalingo.
Agbaizo expressed concern for teachers working in rural communities as they face a lot of challenges.
He, however, said that the proposed RTA would cushion the effect of working in rural areas.
” It is obvious that schools located within Jalingo and other towns are filled with teachers. Rural schools are running a shortage of teachers due to their location and we are considering the introduction of Rural Teachers Allowances as a means of motivation to those teachers being posted to rural communities.
“We have more qualified teachers in public schools than private schools but our challenge is motivation and supervision which will soon be a thing of the past”, Agbaizo said.
The executive chairman also said that the board had purchased motorbikes and would soon distribute them to supervisors who would be visiting all schools on supervisions.
Agbaizo explained that the board had decided to reinvigorate the quality assurance unit with such logistics to achieve effective service delivery in the state.
He gave an assurance that public schools would continue to give the best education to students in basic and post-basic schools.
He said that the payment of teachers’ salaries was up to date. Explaining that the two months arrears being owed to teachers was inherited from the past administration.
He, however, appeal to the teachers in the state to be patient as Governor Darius Ishaku was working hard to source for the money and clear all the backlog of arrears.
He regretted that the Covid-19 pandemic had affected the revenue base of the state, nothing that payment of their arrears would have been a thing of the past.