FCT classrooms empty as teachers’ strike enters seventh day

Public schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, were largely deserted on Tuesday and Wednesday as the indefinite strike by FCT workers entered its seventh day, leaving students without regular lessons and uncertain about when academic activities would resume.

The FCT Council of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had declared an indefinite strike on 7 October over unmet demands of FCT teachers. The strike followed an ultimatum given to the FCT administration.

Following the declaration of the strike, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, threatened the workers with a ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy. But the workers have remained adamant and stayed away from work.

PREMIUM TIMES visited some schools across the FCT and found them deserted.

Deserted schools

At Government Secondary School, Jabi, some students who came to school were seen playing football in front of their classrooms, while no lessons were taking place.

Grace Fagbemi, a Senior Secondary School One (SS1) teacher at the school, told PREMIUM TIMES that teachers had spent four working days without teaching students.

Ms Fagbemi said teachers were waiting for the outcome of a meeting expected to address the dispute.

“It’s been four working days since we taught the students. I think we teachers need Wike to put in some measures that will benefit the teachers in the long run,” she said.

At the school, some students said they had been sent home when the strike began, while others returned because they had little to do at home.

Daniel Zion, a Junior Secondary School Three (JSS3) student, said he and his classmates were in their classroom when school officials arrived and instructed them to leave.

He said the incident occurred before the morning break on Thursday.

“They told us to go home. They chased us because we weren’t even allowed to close the window as we normally do,” he said.

Empty classrooms at Jabi school

At Junior Secondary School, Jabi 2, there were no students around when this newspaper visited on Tuesday.

A teacher, who requested anonymity because she was not authorised to speak to the media, said the school had informed pupils about the strike on Wednesday.

She said the dispute was not primarily about salaries but about delayed promotion examinations and the requirement that vacancies must exist before teachers could be promoted.

“It’s not about salary, it is about the promotion exam delay and the vacancy clause,” she said.

The teacher said many teachers were exhausted by the situation and urged the government to resolve the issues before schools could reopen.

“A lot of teachers, including myself, are really burnt out and seriously affected. The government must do something before the school can resume,” she said.

She added that she did not know when the strike would be called off.

Uncertainty at school for blind children

At the FCT School for the Blind Children, the headmistress said the strike had disrupted classroom activities but that the boarding school could not simply abandon its pupils.

She declined to give her name or comment extensively on the industrial action, saying she was not authorised to speak to the media.

“The strike hasn’t really changed anything, just that no class is being held. Because of the condition of the children, we can’t leave them because of a strike, besides this is a boarding school,” she said.

The headmistress said she would abide by whatever decision the NUT reached, adding that her immediate concern was the welfare of the pupils.

“I’m just concerned about the students, they have been asking questions. That’s all I can tell you,” she said.

A student, Mariam Abdul, said she had been told that classes would not hold until the following day. She said she had heard that the suspension was connected to soldiers who died in an air crash, although she had no confirmation of this.

Why FCT teachers are on strike

The dispute between the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over teachers’ promotion and career progression intensified in September when the FCT Council of the NLC issued a seven-day ultimatum to the FCTA to resolve the issues affecting the teachers’ career progression and welfare.

The NLC demands include the removal of the vacancy requirement for teachers’ promotion, a fresh opportunity for teachers eligible for promotion in 2025 to sit their examination, and the withdrawal of redeployment and demotion letters issued to education directors affected by the implementation of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022.

The 2022 law provides for teachers to retire at 65 years of age or after 40 years of pensionable service, whichever comes first, and includes education officers in its definition of teachers.

The union argued that teachers employed by the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) and the FCT Secondary Education Board (SEB) were recruited specifically to teach and should not be subjected to the vacancy-based promotion system applicable to general civil servants, which it said had stalled their careers.

In its ultimatum, the NLC also demanded the reinstatement of the dissolved management teams of the FCT Universal Basic Education Board and the FCT Secondary Education Board.

On 7 October, the union declared an indefinite strike, saying the demands are yet to be met.

But Mr Wike, the FCT minister, described the strike as politically motivated, insisting that the administration had addressed the workers’ concerns.

He, therefore, directed the six area council chairpersons to enforce a “no work, no pay” policy against workers participating in the action and ordered school heads and relevant officials to keep attendance registers.

The NLC said the ‘no work, no pay’ policy would be unconstitutional as the strike was legitimate and followed all due processes.

The NLC Chairperson, Stephen Adalo, said the no-work, no-pay rule under Section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act applied only to illegal strikes.

“Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, the Trade Unions Act, and ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 151, all ratified by Nigeria, guarantee workers’ right to embark on strike after due process.

“The NLC FCT has fulfilled all legal conditions,” Mr Adalo stated.