Ekiti State: Payment Of N30,000 Minimum Wage To Start October— Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Saturday, announced his readiness to pay the N30, 000 minimum wage to workers beginning October this year.

Fayemi said the gesture was to stimulate workers, especially teachers, to deliver their best to the state and reclaim the lost glory and pride of being the “education nerve-centre of the country.”

The Governor spoke at Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado Ekiti, during the 2019 World Teachers’ Day, with the theme: “Young Teachers, the Future of the Profession”.

At the event, Mr. Henry Olaoluwa Asubiojo of Amoye Grammar School and Tajudeen Olaoye of Anglican Primary School, Esun Ekiti and Mrs Mojisola Ehinafe of Technical School, Ado Ekiti, were awarded cash price of N500,000 each, for emerging as the best teachers in the state.

Fayemi said he decided to inject a new breed of teachers into public schools, by recruiting 2,000 new teachers to safeguard the state’s future.

He said: “We will commence payment of N30,000 to workers in Ekiti,  with effect from this month. We are determined to reward diligence because workers, particularly our teachers, have done the state proud. In this year’s WAEC, Ekiti was ranked 12th. We must continually do more to rise to Number One.”

Fayemi said he decided to establish more schools in Ado Ekiti to depopulate the overpopulated ones and make learning more conducive.

He said: “The only way we can reclaim our lost glory in education is to encourage our teachers in and outside service. I will promote functional and technical education.  I have also ensured all students of school age are in schools.”

The Provost, College of Education,  Prof. Isaac Adeoluwa , said for Nigeria to move to its pride of place, teachers must be made to be ICT compliant and embrace modern techniques of teaching.

The Chairman of the Ekiti State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Samuel Odugbesan, praised Fayemi for recruiting new teachers into public schools across the state.

His counterpart in Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, Sola Adigun, said prompt and regular payment of salaries had rescued the teachers from wanton poverty.