Teachers’ Day: NUT bemoans state of education

Government must also tread with utmost caution on the return of schools to former owners as this will hinder access to public education and create a class distinction between the rich and the poor.

The unionist, who was represented by Alhaja Adebola Kareem, said that the extension would also check the rate at which experienced teachers were being lost.

“It has been proven that the longer a teacher stays in service, the better he or she delivers service to the learners, given the experience gathered over the years and wisdom of age, ” he said.

The NLC chairman, who however appealed to teachers to check truancy among their members, said this was impacting very negatively in the education sector of the state.

Similarly, in Delta State, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa stressed the need for the Nigerian educational system to incorporate enterprise education, education for citizenship, financial education, collaborative online learning and digital literac, among others, into the educational curriculum.

Reacting to the development, Alhaji Abdulkadir Hamza, the Director Schools in the state Ministry for Education, appealed to the NUT to adopt dialogue in addressing the problems.

He urged the state government to consider teachers to the appointments of permanent secretary, chairmanship of TESCOM, SUBEB and even commissioner for education to ensure that round pegs are put in the round holes.

The NUT boss, however, assured that the union would collaborate with other government agencies to fight terrorism and kidnapping in Nigeria, stressing that the theme of This year’s celebration, “Empowering Teachers, Building Sustainable Societies”, was nothing but to address the issues that the country is presently faced with.

The union also demanded the state government’s direct intervention and take-over of primary education in the state and ensure that trained teachers with National Certificate of Education, NCE, including Sandwich, Federal and Nigeria Teachers Institute products, were recruited to teach in the primary schools, to ameliorate the dearth of teachers in the system. “We must admonish our teachers to re-assess and re-dedicate themselves to the noble profession by discharging their duties with renewed vigour and great sense of responsibility”. “They mat afterward be made to proceed on a few refresher courses for optimum service delivery”, he added.

He said, “Once a teacher is empowered, there is assurance that there will be a developed society”.

On security, the deputy governor said the state government will not compromise the security of its citizens including students.

“We urge the government to provide appropriate working conditions to improve teaching and learning system and recruitment of more teachers”.

Majority of teachers in public and private schools in Oyo State on Monday shunned the World Teachers Day celebration apparently in protest against their months of unpaid salaries as well as arrears of pensions and gratuities of those in retirement.