Parents pays salaries of teachers in Unity Schools.

The House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education heard on Monday that up to 80 per cent of teachers in Federal Government Colleges in the country were paid salaries from the funds of the Parent -Teacher Associations of the schools .
The government owns 104 federal colleges and unity schools across the country


But lawmakers were told that the schools relied on the PTAs to fill vacancies and also pay the salaries of teachers because they ( schools ) could not engage teachers directly .
Officially, the schools depend on teachers deployed to them by the Ministry of Education, but in the event of vacancies , they look up to the PTAs .

However , the committee , which is chaired by a member from Kwara State , Mr . Zakari Mohammed, was informed that most of the PTA-bankrolled teachers were later laid off after the ministry ’ s directive that PTA levies in the schools should not be higher than N5 , 000 .
The committee got the information from the Chairman , Unity School Principals (South - West) , Dr . Liman Amodu , in Abuja .
Amodu had appeared before the committee during a 2017 budget defence meeting with heads of schools .
She complained that the new policy had reduced the number of teachers available to unity schools in the region .
She warned that teaching quality could be affected if the ministry stuck to the directive .
She said , “ This is the situation in most of the schools , there may be a little exemption , but this is the general problem .
“ In most cases, about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the teaching staff was on the payroll of the PTA, but we try to comply because we cannot violate a directive from the minister . ”