One Year Anniversary: Stakeholders urge Tinubu to implement approved teachers’ incentives

Some stakeholders in the education sector have called on President Bola Tinubu to implement the incentives approved for teachers by the immediate past administration.

They made the call in separate interviews with our correspondent on Thursday, while assessing President Tinubu’s one year in office.

NEWSVERGE recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2020 World Teachers Day had approved the extension of teachers’ retirement age from 60 years to 65 years and teaching service from 35 years to 40 years.

He approved low-cost housing for teachers in rural areas, sponsorship to, at least, one refresher training per annum to benchmark best practices for improved teaching and learning.

Buhari asked for a special salary scale for teachers in basic and secondary schools, including provisions for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance as well as special pension scheme to enable the teaching profession retain its experienced talents.

The former President directed the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFund) to take up the funding of teaching practice in universities and colleges of education and advocated enhanced entry point for teachers in the civil service.

He approved the reintroduction of bursary award to education students in universities and colleges of education, payment of stipends to students studying education as well as granting them automatic employment after graduation.

Buhari directed that a career path policy for teaching profession be designed as well as teachers conversion programme and ICT training to mitigate the dearth of qualified teachers in the school system.

He also approved expansion of the annual presidential teachers and schools awards to cover more categories and for the outstanding winners to be considered for National Awards and National Productivity Order of Merit Awards.

The stakeholders urged President Tinubu’ to fast track the implementation of the approved incentives to ensure that teachers were adequately motivated to carry out their professional duties with dignity and satisfaction.

The Registrar, Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye commended the federal government for implementing a. few of the incentives, including, the extension of teachers’ retirement age.

He, however noted that out of the 36 states, only 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory had implemented the retirement age directive

Ajiboye said the federal government had started the implementation of bursary award to education students in the universities and colleges of education, especially with the final year students.

He added that steps had also been taken to implement the policy of attracting and retaining the best brains into the teaching profession.

Stressing the need for the President Tinubu’s to implement the incentives, Ajiboye said “teachers are the bedrock of the nation’s development and a neglected teacher is a neglected future”.

He noted that the state of teachers’ welfare in Nigeria directly impacted the quality of education and consequently, the nation’s development trajectory.

According to the Registrar, if 50 per cent of what the former president Buhari approved for teachers is implemented the country will get the best from teachers.

He cited the example of Ghana, where, according to him, teachers were giving yearly developmental allowances for further training, and they do so during the long vacation, when teachers attend development programmes.

Similarly, the Secretary General, NUT, Dr Mike Ike-Ene, said for teachers to score the Tinubu’s administration high, the incentives should be implemented.

On security, Ike-Ene said that schools had become a soft target for kidnappers.

He said that the present administration should know that, without education being at the forefront, the nation would be nowhere.

While commending the administration for the introduction of Students Loan Scheme, the secretary general, appealed to president Tinubu not to forget the teachers.

According to him, “the President must remember that he attained the exhorted position of President today, because somebody trained him”.

“The President needs to hit the ground running, we need to see it and feel it,’’ he said.

For his part, the National President, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Titus Amba, said there was need for teachers to be technically empowered, stressing, “a teacher is universal, if provided with the necessary tools.

“What we are saying is that, government needs to put in more resources in the education sector for motivation, training and retraining of teachers”.

Amba stressed that until the government recognised that education is key, the country would not get it right.