The teachers’ union in Eastern Equatoria has petitioned the state government to pay their allowances.

This includes Friday allowance for agriculture, the house allowances, the chalk allowances, the travel allowances and feeding allowances.

The union threatens that the teachers will go on strike if their demand is not met.

The chairman of the union, Clatters Obonyi says teachers have not received their allowances for five months now.

The petition was presented to Mark Akio, the state’s minister of Education, Science and Technology today in Torit.

Mr Akio says some of the issues raised in the petition are invalid and appealed to the teachers not to go on strike.

“We are appealing to them to continue with their responsibility – that task of education – to ignore this letter which is just aimed at exciting, misleading because many points in this letter are invalid and are not there.”

The ministry says hardship allowances are only given to teachers who are teaching in areas that are hard to reach during the rainy season, such as Lotimor and Lopa/Lafon.