BENIN CITY: Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has reinstated the commitment of his administration to revamp the state’s basic education stating that it is the core focus of his government assuring that the sector would receive adequate funding.

Obaseki, represented by his Chief Of Staff, Mr. Taiwo Akerele gave this assurance when he address some primary school teachers under the umbrella body of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) who staged a peaceful protest in front of the Edo Government House in Benin yesterday

He said the demands and request of the primary school teachers were in line with government plans for basic education in the state saying that the appointment of a Special Adviser (SA) on education was to show the present administration’s determination to remodel educational system in the state.

Also the Acting Chairman of the State Basic Universal Education Board (SUBEB), Mallam Alli Sule, said the state government was trying to restructure the situation in the education sector and solicited the teachers’ support to accomplish the task.

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Sule suggested that if autonomy was granted to LG councils, the funding of primary school teachers should be removed from their control.

Meanwhile, the Edo chairman of NUT, Comrade Loggle Iyalomhe, said the protest was to kick against the perceived plan to allow full control of Primary school funding to local government authorities by granting them autonomy. Iyalomhe said that the protest was nationwide and had held in five states of the federation.

He said that the major agitation at the state level was sustained funding for primary education and payment of Leave Transport Grant (LTG) for 2015 to 2016.”We are saying no to LG handling the funding of primary education, we want the state government to do so because if the LGs are in charge it will lead to the collapse of the sector. The Federal government can also embrace the first line charge policy where emoluments of primary school teachers would be deducted straight from the Federal allocation and paid to the teachers.