By Adesina Wahab & Joseph Erunke
Henry, other name withheld, is a Mathematics graduate and has served for nearly 15 years as a teacher employed by the Parent Teacher Association, PTA, of one of the unity colleges in Lagos. He combines the job with special tutorials he gives to students across the metropolis. He has no choice because there is no way he can rely on the N50,000 monthly stipend he is paid.
Henry and teachers like him, dubbed PTA Teachers, have somehow become the backbone of the teaching staff in almost all unity colleges in the country and even in some public schools owned by state governments. The reason for their importance is not far-fetched, it has been over a decade that new teachers were recruited at federal level and even in some states.
The issue of PTA Teachers has also become a source of friction in some PTA bodies in some colleges. The case of Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos, is a typical example. The disbursement of funds allegedly to pay PTA Teachers created in crisis in the college a few years ago. It led to some students being suspended and the matter taken to court because their parents and guardians were pinpointed as the arrowheads of those calling for accountability in the use of PTA Levy. Also, the indiscriminate increase in PTA Levy in some colleges led to the Federal Ministry of Education pegging it at N12,000 per term. Some colleges were collecting up to N20,000 per term and the issue of accountability in the spending becoming a source of trouble and friction in many PTA bodies.
