… I inherited backlog – Provost
By Mike Adeyemi
No fewer than two staff of Model Basic school, a demonstration school of Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin have reportedly died in the last two years.
The deceased and their colleagues, our reporter gathered, yesterday, were owed salaries for 28 months by the management of the institution.
Speaking with this medium in her office on Wednesday, the head mistress of the school, Mrs. Oyekale Elizabeth said that the salary arrears accumulated from 2012 till date.
She said, “The school is owned by the Kwara State College of Education and not the state government because our appointment letter stated this.
“It is unfortunate that we have lost some of our staff during the salary crisis. The recent is the Mrs. Ramat Abdulganiyu, who died last year due to starvation. Also, another staff, Idris Ajarat is presently on admission at the hospital.
“All our efforts to address the situation proved abortive. We wrote to the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki sometimes last year, he sent delegates to the school in a bid to find lasting solution to the problem, but when his report get to the management of the Kwara State College of Education, it was abandoned,” she lamented.
Speaking further, the headmistress said in August 2015, the matter was brought before the Kwara State House of Assembly which led to the invitation of the former provost and leadership of the state ministry of Education and staff of the school. According to her, the development led to the payment of four months salary arrears in fragment.
“At a point, the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatahi Ahmed wrote a letter to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to take over the ownership of the school but to no avail.
“Until now, the College do give us 52 per cent subvention, which we normally merge with the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR). Problem however started during the regime of the last council chairman, who went on air to say the school is not standard and that plans are underway to restructure it. The development brought about a reduction in pupils enrolment from 500 to 100 as I speak.”
The headmistress lamented that some of the employees of the school have been thrown out of their rented apartments following their inability to meet up with their financial obligation.
“We want to appeal to the Kwara State Government to urgently come to the aid of the school by offsetting our backlog. We equally call on relevant agencies to help in finding lasting solution to this salary issue.”
When contacted, the Provost, Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, Dr. Abdulraheem Yusuf said he inherited the salary arrears from previous administration. He however stated that concerted efforts are being made to bring about sanity to the school since his assumption of office in May 2018.
“Though it is an inherited problem, we are already making efforts to see how we will not be unfair to any of the parties – the staff and even the college.
“The moral question is how do we clear the salary backlog? We have set up an independent body to find out how the school find itself in that situation. It is based on their findings that we have written to the state government to take over the school and proffer, the way out.
“Hopefully the salary backlog will soon be resolved,” he said.
