How Many More Strikes Must FCT Pupils Endure?

At FAME Foundation for Women and Girls Empowerment, we work with young people, and we cannot keep watching this cycle of strikes and school closures without speaking up for the children whose future is at stake.

In 2026 alone, public schools in the FCT have been shut down three times: in January, in April and now in October. The January shutdown came from the wider strike by FCT Administration workers, which the Nigeria Union of Teachers joined. The April strike over unpaid entitlements ended within a week after the Minister approved N5 billion monthly to cover the 40 per cent peculiar allowance and other arrears. The latest began on 7 October, when the Nigeria Labour Congress declared an indefinite strike over teachers’ promotion, with the vacancy requirement for promotion at the centre of the dispute. Once again, pupils were turned back at school gates. How many more times must our children be sent home? How many more teaching days must they lose? And how long must they wait for education to get the stability it deserves?

This is not a new problem. A January 2026 report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting found that public primary schools in the FCT lost at least 165 days to strikes between September 2023 and July 2025. That is nearly a full academic year. The disruptions of 2026 have added to that loss, and each new shutdown makes it harder for pupils to catch up.

We recognise that teachers deserve fair treatment, promotion when it is due, decent welfare and respect for their rights. A teacher who sees no path forward in the profession is hard to keep motivated, and the demands now on the table cannot be waved away. But children should not become the silent victims of disputes between workers and government.

Every day out of class counts. A pupil who loses weeks of lessons does not simply pick up where they stopped. Children preparing for examinations carry extra pressure. Families who cannot afford private school have nowhere else to turn, and when public schools close, the children with the fewest options lose the most. In our work with girls, we see how easily a long break from school can turn into falling behind for good, especially for those from poorer homes.

Who is speaking for these children? Who is protecting their right to uninterrupted learning? Who will account for the time they have lost? These questions need answers from the FCT Administration, the area council authorities and the labour unions.

We urge all sides to move beyond ultimatums, shutdowns and promises that do not last. Meet and talk in good faith. Agree on clear commitments with firm timelines, and then carry them out in the open, so that teachers and parents can see what has been done. Agreements that are signed and then forgotten are the reason we keep returning to the same place. Teachers’ welfare must be settled, and children’s education must be protected while it is.

Our aim is not to undermine the teachers’ struggle. It is to remind everyone involved that schools exist for the child, and every long disruption puts that child’s future at greater risk. The children did not create these disputes, and they should not carry the heaviest cost of them.

Enough of this cycle. Our children deserve stability, our teachers deserve justice, and our schools deserve lasting solutions. The future of FCT children cannot keep waiting. We call on every party to act now, with responsibility and resolve.