The Federal Government has agreed to pay the backlog of salaries owed private school teachers who have been out of work following the lockdown that followed the outbreak of the corona virus pandemic in Nigeria.

It would be recalled that Nigerian schools have been shut since end of March, as a measure of stemming the effect of the COVID 19 pandemic in Nigeria. Most of the teachers had cried out recently, as according to them, been out of school had made it impossible to meet their economic needs.

President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Chief Yomi Otubela, who disclosed this at a Zoom conference during the week said the salaries would be paid from the N2.3 trillion stimulus package recently approved by the Federal Government to support businesses, including private education sub-sector.

“Our justification for requesting palliatives from Federal Government was borne out of the fact that the abrupt closure of schools to protect the students in the country from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, brought a lot of untold hardship to private school owners who rely heavily on fees to meet up with obligations such as payment of salaries, operational costs and repayment of loans obtained from various financial institutions.

“The recent announcement of the approval of N2.3 trillion stimulus package to support businesses by the Federal Government with the inclusion of private schools is a welcome development to save private education sub-sector from imminent collapse. NAPPS, therefore, appreciates the government for the swift response to our request for support. We are hopeful that the government will soon release guidelines for private schools to benefit from this support. Olubela stated.

The teachers are also requesting from the government for a single digit loan for private schools to cushion the effect of the pandemic.