CLAIM: Nigerian teachers are only going to teach twice a week.
VERDICT: Partly true. Credible media reports and calls put through to the union’s president confirmed that lecturers will soon start attending classes only two days a week instead of five. However, the academics referred to in the report are lecturers in Colleges of Education, not secondary or primary school teachers.
Full Text
As the crucial presidential and legislative elections in Liberia fast approach, there are analyses on the radio and in newspapers regarding the state of affairs in the country. Some are geared towards showing that George Weah’s government is doing well amidst prevailing challenges. Others are on the reverse.
On July 21, 2023, the lead host of the program, “Open Conversation,” said Liberians have so much to be thankful for, especially with unfavourable news in other countries in the ECOWAS region.
“Imagine that, in Nigeria, teachers are saying they will teach only two days a week because of how bad the economy is. If you are in Liberia, you will bless God that you are a Liberian, and everything is still on course,” she said.
Ms Gebro quotes the teachers as saying that if the government does not care for the economy and things are not better for us as teachers, “we better go to school and teach the students twice a week.”
The state broadcaster talk show host wonders in her comparison of Nigeria to Liberia’s situation with respect to teachers’ decision to attend classes two times.
“Imagine if your child has to be taught two times a week when our children know that they must go to school Monday, Tuesday up to Friday.”
The claim was made on the show at 6 mins 10 sec of the program, lasting over two hours. Given the show’s audience base and the public’s interest, DUBAWA has decided to verify the claim.
Verification
We first contacted the claimant to request the source of her information and provide a link to authenticate. However, she declined to respond to inquiries from DUBAWA.
A keyword search on Google revealed a news report by Nigerian Observers that members of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) have been urged by the leaders of its academic union to attend classes only twice a week.
The report says that the development adopted by the academic union is a resolution made after an “extraordinary meeting” on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. The meeting was necessitated by the federal government’s unacceptable silence in meeting the union’s demands to increase their wages by 200% due to the hike in transportation prices due to the removal of fuel subsidy by the new government.
Its president, Smart Olugbeko, announced that the union directed “its members to go to work two days weekly until (the) Federal Government yields to its demand of 200 per cent increase in salary, amidst the difficulty of members to get to work as a result of hike in the price of petrol.”
Channels TV, another news outlet, also reports a similar development.
We called the president, and he stated that the union has “agreed” to go on with the decision. Asking him further when the development will commence, he said it is left to the state chapter members to decide.
However, COEASU is a union made up of lecturers who teach in colleges of education and are quite different from those who teach in primary or secondary schools. Meanwhile, there’s no news report about the latter category changing their work schedules due to economic strain.
Conclusion
The claim is partially true. Members of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) who teach in colleges of education differ from those who teach in primary or secondary schools.
