Sokoto Parents Demand N100,000 Minimum Pay for Teachers Earning N60,000 After 20 Years

Some of the teachers at the Federal Government College Staff School in Sokoto have been there for nearly two decades. They currently earn N60,000 a month.

That number, which the school's PTA Chairman revealed at Sunday's Parent-Teacher Association Annual General Meeting, is the number everything else in this story turns on. It is also the number that explains why parents, the people who benefit most directly from these teachers' work, showed up to a meeting and demanded something be done about it.

The demands from parents at the FGC Staff School Sokoto teachers salary welfare meeting were specific. They want a minimum monthly salary of N100,000 for teachers, plus a lesson allowance of N30,000. Together, that would bring the total package to N130,000 a month, still not a generous figure by any reasonable standard, but significantly better than what is currently being paid.

PTA Chairman Jamilu Sidi did not frame this as charity. He framed it as common sense.

"Concerns over poor teachers' welfare, limited transparency in the school's finances and repeated increases in school fees remain unresolved despite engagements with the management. Teachers' salaries have only increased from N55,000 to N60,000," he said.

That detail is worth reading twice. School fees have been repeatedly increased. Teachers' salaries moved N5,000 in the same period. The gap between what parents are being asked to pay and what teachers are being paid is not going unnoticed, and parents are connecting those dots.

Sidi also warned directly that underpaid teachers produce compromised results. That is not an accusation against the teachers themselves. It is an acknowledgement of reality. A person who is worried about feeding their family cannot fully concentrate on teaching someone else's children, no matter how dedicated they are.

Beyond salaries, the PTA raised concerns about how the school manages its finances. Parents say decisions that affect them, including fee increases, are being made without adequate consultation or disclosure. They asked for greater stakeholder participation and openness in institutional decisions going forward.

That request for transparency is significant because it suggests the salary issue is not sitting in isolation. It is part of a pattern where parents feel things are happening to the school, to fees, to staffing, without anyone explaining the reasoning or inviting input.

The School Board Chairman, Sulaiman Ibrahim, offered the most measured response available in that setting: he assured parents that the resolutions from the AGM would be forwarded to the school administration for review and action. That is a procedurally correct answer. Whether it produces movement is a different question.

Headteacher Chivuzor David acknowledged the support of parents during the meeting and flagged one concrete improvement. The school's water problem, a persistent issue, has been resolved through the installation of a solar-powered borehole.

He also made a specific request of his own: asking the PTA to fund a solar power system for the nursery section to improve the teaching and learning environment there. That request, coming in the same meeting where parents were challenging management on salaries and transparency, says something about the resource constraints the school is managing.