Teachers from Pivic Model College, a component of Pivic Schools in Lagos, have narrated how they were made to work for two months without pay. FIJ also learned that those who have been paid didn’t get their salaries until they had a confrontation with their boss.

On Thursday, Toke Starr (not real name), a teacher working with Pivic, told FIJ she could not fend for herself or her family because she had not received her salary.

“I want you to come to my aid. I’m a teacher at Pivic College located at Iba New Site in Ojo LGA, Lagos State. The school director, Abeson Anthony, has vehemently refused to pay me and other staff members our salaries for May and June,” Starr told FIJ.

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“Pivic never really owed us our salaries until this year. All of a sudden, we stopped receiving our salaries. Whenever we approached the school’s director to ask for the payment, he would tell us one story or the other. He just gave us excuses with no assurance about our pay. Sometimes, he quarrels with you.

“When it was due for him to pay us in June, he said that there was no money and the students were owing school fees. He claimed that the school still had N1.8 million in students’ unpaid fees. We asked him why students were never sent home if they were truly owing school fees, but he insisted that they owed.

“In May, he paid some teachers, but those teachers had to fight before they received their salaries. If you don’t fight, you don’t get your pay. Those who fought for their pay were told that they were wicked. Just a few workers got their salaries in May. When we recently asked for our two months’ pay, he said that he still couldn’t pay. This time, he told us that he had about N1.4 million outside.

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“The staff members know the few students who owe school fees; many of them have left the school. We cannot collect even the token from the lesson fees because the principal told us that all the money was with the director. She’s not even sure if the director will give us our lesson money. Things have become costly and the economic situation is making it a lot worse. This is my only source of livelihood; we cannot even feed ourselves anymore. I don’t know what else to do to get the wages we worked for.”

When FIJ called Eberechi Benjamin, Pivic School’s principal, she demanded to know the names of the teachers who reported the situation. Benjamin said she would not entertain questions from FIJ if we would not tell her the names of the teachers who said that they were owed.

“Are they the first to be owed salaries? They are not the first,” Benjamin told FIJ over the phone on Friday.

Tony Abeson, the director of Pivic Schools, explained to FIJ that the school had run into financial challenges because parents failed to pay their wards’ school fees.

Abeson explained that only about 11 staff members of the 43 at Pivic had not received their salaries. He explained that he paid salaries on the 10th of every month, so he believed he still had till July 10 to pay June salaries.

Abeson sent FIJ’s reporter some texts after the phone call. He reminded FIJ that until May, he didn’t owe salaries, and promised to pay the following week. Abeson ended his texts with a threat of legal action.

“Please stay in your lane or you will hear from my lawyer. What right do you have to discuss the school issue with a staff? My principal,” Abeson wrote.

“I will not say anything again but I promise to get who told you all this rubbish. Because we don’t owe, go and blame your country’s economy.”