‘How DSC Teachers Used Pupils As Pawns To Get Better Condition Of Service’

From Joseph Obukata, Warri

Students and pupils of Delta Steel Company (DSC) Technical High School, DSC Model Nursery and Primary School 1 and 3, respectively, were out of school recently, thanks to a dramatic volte-face by teachers of the school against the Indian owners and operators of the schools, located in Ovwain-Aladja, Delta State.

The schools, owned and operated by Indian-owned Premium Steel and Mines Limited (PSML) and Stallion Group, a Dubai-headquartered company, have been enmeshed in a long-drawn crisis with teachers over issues related to poor conditions of service.

Weeks ago, the schools witnessed peaceful protests by some parents after teachers of the three schools sent home students and pupils in protest of the management’s alleged nonchalant and lackadaisical attitude to the issues set before them.

Investigation revealed that teachers of the three privately-owned schools and the Indian owners had been entangled in the crisis remotely because of allegations of ‘intentional diversion of funds’ meant for the schools to service other conglomerates owned by the company.

After many years of forebearance, the romance between the management and teachers broke down two weeks ago.

However, instead of baring their fangs against the Indian managers of the schools, the teachers vented their anger on parents, sent their wards home, to draw the attention of theschool’s management to their plight.

The schools, which were once funded and owned by the Federal Government before the DSC was sold and privatized through a concession agreement, were closed for four straight days, with many parents believing the teachers, though “fighting for their rights,” were using the children as pawns to get what they want.

It was learnt that pupils of DSC Model Primary and Nursery School 1 and School 3, as well as the Technical High School, which also has a boarding section, were asked not to resume school until the ‘work to rule’ action declared by the teachers was vacated.

The development, which resulted in crisis, forced some parents to stage a peaceful protest to the administration and bursary section of the schools, calling on the PSML and Stallion Group to pay the backlog of teachers’ allowances and settle the numerous issues confronting the schools.

The placard-carrying protesters were at the administrative block by 10am to articulate their grievances, including poor maintenance culture, failure of the nursery and primary school management to organize a parent-teacher association (PTA), high-handedness by a head mistress as well as failure to ensure security of the school premises, particularly how the pupils are left unattended to in School 3 after the closing bell.

Some of the placards borne by the protesters had inscriptions such as “Minister of Steel, our children are at home”, “Federal Government of Nigeria come to our aid”, “Why are our children at home after payment of school fees?”, “Bring back PTA”, “Bring back our school fees”, “Premium Steel Company pay your teachers well”, and Parents are angry” among others.

Some of the parents, who craved anonymity for fear that their wards would be victimized, said that the failure of the DSC management to attend to the teachers informed the peaceful protest.

One of the protesters said, “We are parents of DSC schools in Delta State. We are here to protest. Why did they shut down the schools when they are supposed to be in session? For three days now, our children are not being taught. There have been no lectures and today is Wednesday, and nothing is still happening.

“The schools are now under lock and key and they asked us not to bring our children and wards to school and we have paid school fees. The teachers are not happy; no promotion, no leave allowance. The schools environment is not being maintained and we the parents are not happy. Imagine a school without PTA, they don’t allow PTA because they don’t want our voices to be heard.

“We are not valued in this school. We don’t know where to make complaints and who to meet. So, that’s why we came out today to protest, for them to hear us. The government should come to our aid; good-spirited Nigerians should come to our aid.

“We are calling on the Federal Government and the Minister for Steel and Mines to intervene and call Premium Steel’s chief executive officer to order. Teachers are working hard but are not being paid well. The parents are angry that they are keeping our children at home while others are in school.

“This is supposed to be a private school and not a public school. It is a private business. So, they should run it as one. Keeping our children at home is bad, tht is unfair. We are fighting for the future of our children.

“It heartbreaking and painful that, for seven years that I have been in the schools with my children, we don’t have PTA meetings.”

Another protesters who also preferred to remained anonymous, expressed displeasure that they were deceived to pay school fee early January when they (teachers) knew they were going to protest poor condition of service in February.

She accused the teachers for using the children and wards as pawn to drive home their plight, saying it was not right for them not to have pre-informed parents. “We came to school one day and was sadly informed that they had since Friday stopped lectures and that we should not bring our children to school as from Tuesday because they have declared a ‘work to rule’.

“How can they do this kind of a thing to us? They want to make our children to suffer their inability to resolve their crisis? She queried.

Some senior staff of the school that confided on our Correspondent alleged that premium steel, is diverting funds meant for the schools for the steel plant hence they are always not having sufficient money to take care of teachers and effect maintenance in the schools. They posited that until they separate the steel company from the management of the schools, things would continue to go wrong.

The protesters sought the Indian management to devise a mechanism where the school funds which accrued from school fees, maintenance levy including grants from the federal government, are separated entirely from the steel company, lamenting that while “we take the brunt of dust from the fight between the two elephants with our children being used as pawns, the unproductive steel plant workers are enjoying the payments made by us”.

“Premium Steel Company have been unfair to us, the steel plant is not productive but we are producing here. Between school 1 and School 3 alone, we have over 1,700 in population. THS is not included. The schools are running well so why can’t they pay salaries and allowances? Maintenance culture here is very poor, the schools are not being maintained and we are generating money. Why are they using our funds to service the steel plant?”, they queried.

Addressing the protesters who thronged the admin building and had blocked him from leaving, the Director General of Premium Steel and Mines Limited, Schools, Mr. Emmanuel Etaghene, put the bulk of the blame on the current crisis at the door step of the head teachers of the schools whom he said didn’t inform the management or exercise alternative dispute resolution mechanism before embarking on the industrial action.

He said that although the management was already tackling the issues raised by the teachers and that they were hostile to the extent that some of them switched off generator set at the boarding school and even stopped workers at the kitchen from preparing food for boarders.

Etaghene disclosed that while negotiation was still on, the Indian management has already approved the contentious leave bonus allowance and payment would be disbursed Wednesday afternoon, a day the parents decided to the protest the closure of the schools.

“When I addressed them yesterday, I asked them, you said you’re on work to rule, it means you come to school and do anything. You just sit on your staffroom till closing time but yesterday they were matching, singing and trying to militarize the whole process. So I told them, in industrial relationship if you say you’re on work to rule, you don’t supposed to do what you’re doing.

“Moreso when over 50 percent of your demands have been met. The man that they are supposed to meet for the final solution is not here, though we are discussing with him. The leave grant they are agitating about I just got information that a good number of them will get the alert before the end of today. So they will get the alert. That’s the assurance they just gave to me now. The finance people are saying that before 2 o’clock the alert must have come in. So the matter, like I said we are working very hard to resolve them. We have a reputation to defend and wouldn’t allow this issue to smear our image”.

On allegations that the management forbids PTA in the schools, he said he was not aware that the primary school does not have a Parent Teachers Association (PTA).

When confronted that PTA levy is being paid by parents without a PTA in existence and where the PTA funds have been going, Etaghene challenged the protesters to investigate it, denying that the money do go into the coffer of the company.

“Go and find out who takes the PTA money. Quote me anywhere; when you go to the next meeting ask them if the PTA levy goes to the company. It doesn’t concern us. It is a parent, teacher’s thing, he added.

When remained that the PTA in school 1 was threatened and disbanded by management, Mr. Etaghene, clarified that the PTA was disbanded after they took the company to court but “we had judgment against them.

“The PTA took us to court that the DSC schools belonged to them and we got judgment against them. The former PTA chairman took us to court that the schools belong to them and the judge ruled that you’re a member of PTA because your child is admitted in DSC schools. If you don’t like the school you take you child away and you cease to be a member of PTA. The judge ruled that he has never seen a place where PTA becomes owner of school, that they’re busybodies and that’s been the end of it. So if you want to continue your PTA nobody would stop you”, he told the protesters.

Etaghene further, dismissed allegations that the company was channeling funds meant for the schools to the steel plant, saying the steel management is different from the schools. But whether payment have been made as claimed by the DG of the schools to call off the industrial action, could not be established as of time of filling this report.

(This report was originally published by Daily Sun)