Seek better incentives, national honoursACROSS the states of the federation, the chorus is the same: The three tiers of government have neglected the education sector and teachers.Nigerian teachers, who joined their counterparts worldwide to mark the yearly World Teachers' Day yesterday, were unanimous that there were no incentives and facilities to make the profession attractive for them to raise the human capital needed for national development.They accused both the federal and state of governments of politicising the management of education, especially at tertiary level by appointing politicians into the governing councils of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.According to leaders of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), who spoke at various fora to mark the day, such politicians only share the allocations to the schools at the expense of the facilities and persons for which the funds were voted.The teachers further accused the Federal Government of deliberately excluding them from the national merit awards while recognizing politicians, who made little or no contributions to national development.Even the new minimum wage of N18,000, which would have brought relief to the practitioners, according to the NUT was elusive to teachers in some states.Still lamenting their woes, the teachers accused some state governments of encouraging some parallel bodies to break the rank of the NUT.In Anambra State, the NUT urged the government to immediately resume the payment of Teachers' Enhanced Allowance (TEA) to professional teachers in the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) and local council education authority, which the authorities had withdrawn.Addressing teachers on the occasion to mark the World Teachers' Day yesterday in Awka, the state chairman of NUT, Mr. Ofodile Ifeanyi,said the denial was a breach of the enabling law of 1993, which regulates the registration of professional teachers in Nigeria by Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).He also asked the government to address the issue of Higher National Diploma (HND) holders/employees of the Post Primary School Service Commission, whose promotion had stagnated for over 12 years, insisting that they be allowed to progress to Grade Level 15.On the minimum wage, he regretted the state government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) face-off and called for the amicable resolution of issues at stake.In a paper titled: 'Teachers for gender equality,' the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Ngozi Ezeike, identified the major challenges facing teacher education in Nigeria as how to revitalise teaching and teacher education.Ezeike said another challenge is how to motivate teachers to encourage new entrants to the profession and retain the old ones.The President of the Academics Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) in Ogun State, Tunde Folarin, lamented the government's neglect of teachers in its policies despite the profession's immense contributions to nation-building.At the event held at Muda Lawal Stadium, Asero, Abeokuta yesterday, Folarin, who doubles as the National Vice-Chairman of the union, accused the federal and state governments of giving awards to politicians who passed through the tutelage of the teachers at the expense of their mentors or trainers.He urged the Federal Government 'to encourage the teachers by nominating them for national awards,' saying 'this will be moral booster.'Folarin noted that the yearly event was set aside by the United Nations (UN) to appreciate the good work of the teachers across the world to say 'thank you to them (teachers).'This year's theme is 'Teachers for gender equality.'Folarin said the government always bemoans the 'falling standard of education in the country, but fails to improve on the situation.'Most Nigerian rulers since the 1950s, benefited from the free and highly subsidised education and programmes initiated by the naturalists before and immediately after independence. Unfortunately, those beneficiaries even with stupendous funds at their disposal, resolved against the provision of free and affordable education for successive generations of impoverished Nigerians,' he said.He accused the politicians of being responsible for the decay in the education system, adding that 'Nigerian politicians scramble for appointments into governing councils of tertiary institutions of learning where they share the funds allocated to such institutions, only to turn around and lament the rot in the system.'On the solutions to the problems facing the sector, he asked the governments to check corruption, reduce the allure of public officers, slash the unjustified huge allowances of political office holders, phase out private schools, accept the education of the citizenry as their responsibilities, revive public schools, provide free education at all levels and employ quality and well remunerated teachers, channel funds to education and ensure their honest utilisation and also stop the politicisation of the governing councils of tertiary institutions.Folarin also used the medium to remind President Goodluck Jonathan to respond to their agitation on the National Secondary Education Commission (NASECO), saying 'we (ASUSS) call on the President to bridge the gap created in the education sector by giving the NASECO its pride of place.'Teachers in Oyo State asked Governor Abiola Ajimobi to wield the big stick against ASSUS, a parallel body which emerged in the wake of Labour's confrontation with the former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.The state chairman of NUT, Joseph Babatunde, who made the plea in his address at the event, said the 'illegal union' was set up to frustrate the education policies of the state government and should not be reckoned with.The governor who was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Adetokunbo Fayokun, said his administration would make teachers' welfare a priority.'Salaries will be paid henceforth on the 26th day of every month, so, we will advise that every teacher should open an account to foster this for the benefit of everyone of us,' Fayokun said.In Borno State, the exclusion of teachers from the N18,000 minimum wage by the state government was protested by the NUT Chairman, Bulama Abiso.Abiso in a signed press statement to mark the day in Maiduguri, said: 'Teachers in Borno State have been relegated to the background with the non-implementation of the recommendations of ILO and UNESCO on the salary review and welfare of teachers.
Click here to read full news..
