DSS Staff School Reinstate Sacked Teachers, Others

Department of State Services (DSS) staff school has reinstated sacked teachers among others in Asokoro, Abuja.

The dismissed teachers and other staff of the Community Staff Schools, Asokoro, Abuja, have been reinstated four days after they were issued letters of disengagement by the school management.

According to Punch, the school which was earlier shut for two weeks re-opened on Thursday while lessons were expected to commence Friday (today).

A source confirmed on Thursday that the dismissed staff had been recalled. Our correspondent who visited the school also observed students and a few teachers on the premises.

The PUNCH had reported that the CSS owned by the Department of State Services had sacked the 140 teachers and other workers in the school for demanding better working conditions and regularisation of their appointment in line with the public service rules.

The service also asked the 1,800 pupils in the nursery/primary and secondary arms of the school to stay at home for two weeks to enable it to reorganize the school.

“The school is autonomous and not run by the DSS; it has an independent board that takes decisions for it. Though I may not be speaking for the school, I, however, learnt that no single worker was dismissed. I was also told that the school will be cutting short its earlier two-week break to resume on Thursday, 5th November 2020,” the DSS spokesman, Dr Peter Afunanya, in a text message on Thursday said.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the Nigeria Union of Teachers has threatened to go on strike if the Department of State Services fails to reverse the sack of 140 teachers in its Community Staff Schools, Asokoro, Abuja.

In an interview with The PUNCH, the Secretary-General, NUT, Dr Mike Ike-Ene, said the union had written the authority to reverse and withdraw the sack letters.

“The teachers came and we took photocopies of the sacked letters; we wrote to the authority and asked them to reverse it. If they don’t reverse the sack, all the teachers in primary and post-primary, even the private schools will all go on strike, because an injury to one is an injury to all.

“Somebody is saying give me better welfare, what you can do is negotiate. Is DSS itself not asking for better welfare? This is man’s inhumanity to man,” he said.

Ike-Ene said that their employment was applicable to anyone in the federal civil services and so there was no justification for the sack.