By Izunna Okafor, Awka
The Anambra State Government has formally abolished the long-observed Monday sit-at-home across the state, warning that any teacher or education staff who fails to report for duty on Mondays will face stiff salary sanctions, including possible forfeiture of their entire monthly pay.
The directive was conveyed through an official circular issued by the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB), following a State Executive Council Retreat held on January 21, 2026, and presided over by Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo.
According to the circular, which was signed and made available to newsmen on Thursday by the ASUBEB Secretary, Hon. Loveline Mgbemena on behalf of the Executive Chairman of the Board; the decision to terminate the Monday sit-at-home arrangement takes immediate effect and applies to all staff under the Board, both teaching and non-teaching, across the 21 Local Government Education Authorities in the state.
ASUBEB emphatically warned that any staff who absents themselves from school or office duties on Mondays, without lawful justification, will be subjected to financial penalties. Specifically, the Board noted that any defaulting workers risk either receiving only 20 percent of their salary for the month or forfeiting the salary entirely, depending on the severity and circumstances of the infraction.
ASUBEB further directed all Permanent Board Members, Officers-in-Charge of the 21 LGEAs, Zonal Directors, and Departmental Directors at the ASUBEB Headquarters in Awka to immediately disseminate the directive to all staff under their supervision and ensure strict compliance.
The circular emphasized that the instruction was not merely an administrative guideline but an executive decision of the Anambra State Government, which must be obeyed without hesitation.
This move and directive by government has been described by some netizens as another significant step and laudable milestone in the administration’s broader efforts to restore full academic activities in public schools, safeguard students’ learning time, and address the negative impact of prolonged disruptions on the education sector.
Howbeit, some other dissenting voices have also emerged among the netizens criticizing the state government for what they described as being selective and practically undynamic in its approach to end the Monday Sit-at-Home in the state.
While noting that even the state’s lawmakers don’t sit on Mondays for obvious reasons, these dissenting voices also speculated that such directive, which they described as a trap, can only be issued and enforced on junior and “local” teachers and staff out there, while the senior and well-positioned ones would be exempted.
The netizens further added that the government should have backed up such directive with practical actions, such as special deployment of security personnel in other to help strengthen the confidence of the teachers and other staff, especially those in the hinterlands where the Sit-at-Home observance was more pronounced in its early days of enforcement.
