President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, reiterated the determination of his administration to return teachers, teaching and the teaching profession to their rightful places in the country.
Buhari, who was represented by the vice-president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, spoke at the 2022 World Teachers’ Day celebration held at Eagle Square.
This came as the president of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Audu Titus Amba, lamented the non-implementation of the N30,0000 national minimum wage for teachers by some state governments, urging the affected states to implement the same immediately to avoid industrial dispute.
“This explains why the federal government is determined to return teachers, teaching and the teaching profession to their rightful places.
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“To this end we are fully implementing the professional teaching and teacher qualification framework standards that will invariably impact on education outcome and teacher performance at the pre-school, basic, secondary and tertiary levels.
“We are also developing a verifiable database of teachers in Nigeria, already the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has registered 2, 108, 342 teachers and licensed 1,250,000 teachers.
“Our new teachers policy is already being implemented at tne Federal level and in some States and I urge States that have not, to do so immediately , the gains are already showing,” he said.
He promised that the government will always continue to champion the course of promoting education.
NUT President, Comrade Titus Amba, in his remark at the event, called on the federal and state governments to increase budgetary allocation to 20 per cent and progressively to 26 per cent as recommended by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
“The basic and secondary education sub-sectors are faced with serious challenges.
“These include non-implementation of the N30,000.00 minimum wage for teachers in some states, shortage of teachers, poor infrastructure, lack of instructional materials, insecurity in schools, inadequate funding and poor conditions of service in general.
“This requires extra efforts on the part of teachers to assess and identify learning loss and adopt recovery measures to ensure that no learner is left behind.”
Senior pastor of Oritamefa Baptist Church, Rev. Diran Adeleke, who doubles as the chairman, Education Board of Oritamefa Baptist Model Schools (OBMS), commended the federal government for instituting the President’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award (PTSA), to recognise and reward deserving teachers, administrators and schools for their outstanding contributions to quality education delivery in Nigeria.
The Oritamefa Baptist Model School emerged the 5th runner up in the best private schools in Nigeria in the 2022 award, which Adeleke said as a result of hard work and commitment of the staff to delivery of quality education in the last 26 years.
“This means that it is not only God who is taking notice of all the efforts we are putting in place to raise our children but the government is also watching and we are encouraged,” he said.
The theme for World Teachers’ Day 2022 is “The Transformation of Education Begins With Teachers,” marks the 26th edition of the celebration in Nigeria.
The theme seeks to highlight the important role teachers are expected to play in transforming and shaping the future of Education in the midst of growing societal needs and challenges of the 21″ century such as climate change, rising inequalities and rapid technological change.
On his part, the minister of education, Adamu Adamu congratulated all winners of the presidential teachers and schools awards and reiterated government focus on deepening the reforms in the education sector with enhanced funding to reach our goals.
“We call on states and local governments to prioritise the welfare of teachers by placing their salaries on first line charge in their respective budgets. This, we believe will provide a solution to the spectre of unpaid salaries,” the minister said.
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