Anambra state government and teachers in the state are at loggerhead over the issue of computer. Whereas the state ministry of education is said to have made it compulsory for each teacher to purchase computer set from its agency at the rate of of N90,000.00, the teachers have described it as unconscionable and unacceptable.
The secretary of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), the umbrella teachers’ body in Anambra state, Ms. Nnenna Okonkwo, said that the teachers could only buy the computer for N50,000.00 each.
Okonkwo said that teachers who would retire in the next 18 months should not be expected to buy the computers, the positions which she said, have been made known to the government.
“We have asked them to reduce the price of the computer to N50,000 each and that teachers who will be due for retirement in the next 18 months should not be compelled to buy the computers.
“We say this because government had compelled us to sign consent forms, compelling teachers in the state to buy the computers from them, only for the commissioner to withdraw from that stand last week.
“How can somebody compel teachers to buy the computers at that high cost? Some of the teachers have their own computers and somebody still wants them to buy another one; it is callous and we have rejected the plan.”
The state Commissioner for Education, Professor Kate Omenugha, has however denied that the government made it compulsory for teachers to purchase computers, but said that what is important is that henceforth any teacher that is not computer literate will not be promoted.
Omenugha said that teachers nearing their retirement age would not need to buy the computers, adding that the computer literacy is part of National Policy in education. [myad]
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