President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja decried the current situation in the country in which teachers go without being paid their salaries for many months in some states.

Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists.

Shehu said the President raised the concern after receiving a briefing from the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, MacJohn Nwaobiala.

He said the President urged the three tiers of government to be more mindful of their responsibilities to pay teachers their salaries on time.

Noting that the non-payment of teachers had resulted in long-running strikes by teachers in some states, Buhari said the worst harm state governments could cause their citizens was to deny them good education.

“It then means that their citizens will be denied a chance to compete with others at the centre. Socially, it is very, very bad, if not irresponsible,” the President said.

Nwaobiala was said to have briefed the President on the current activities of the Ministry of Education as well as its challenges, including inadequate funding and insecurity in some parts of the country.