Return of schools: NUT threatens showdown with Anambra

The National Union of Teachers has threatened to shut down socio-economic activities in Anambra State if the state government does not rescind its decision to return public schools to missionaries.National President of the Union, Mr. Michael Olukoya, handed down the threat at a press conference at the Teachers House, Abuja.He said Anambra State Governments decision was a criminal violation of the Universal Basic Education Act (2004) making universal basic education free and compulsory.The trade unionist wondered why public officers in Nigeria appear in a hurry to abdicate their responsibility of providing service to the public.He said it was a sad development for public officers who enjoyed public education to deny the new generation access to the same rights.Olukoya said, It is a parody and travesty of governance that as the world moves progressively toward mass education through public funding, the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, is all out at returning education to elitist project, undeserving for the children of the poor masses.The recourse to handing over primary schools is an attempt at commercialising that compulsory, free and universal basic education; Governor Obi and the missions to whom primary and secondary schools within the ambit of the universal basic education Act are threading the path of criminality in the face of the law that is being currently trampled upon in Anambra State.The NUT President berated the governor for taking such a position.He said Governor Obi should convince the public, if the majority of those in Nigerian prisons today and most of the ex-governors and high profile public servants who are already heading for jail on account of money laundering are not products of mission schools.Does it not amount to moral depravity that government should assist religious bodies with the sum of N9bn public fund to prosecute religious education while ours remain a secular state
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