Following the celebration of the World Teachers’ Day by the United Nations on October 5, the Nigeria Union of Teachers has bemoaned the condition of teachers in schools across Nigeria.
The NUT argued that teachers in Nigeria had nothing to celebrate during the occasion because they had not fared well, especially regarding their working condition and welfare.
NUT National President, Comrade Micheal Olukoya, in a chat with our correspondent lamented the poor condition of teachers who are supposed to serve as teachers to the future leaders of the country.
Olukoya said, “The teachers of Nigeria have not fared well, they are just existing by the grace of God. First, their social needs and other needs have not been adequately attended to. We have cases of non-payment of salaries, poor facilities, no training, and no seminar. These things demoralise the teachers.
“Many of them, after service, face problems to get their pension. We are also concerned about the happenings in our education sector.”
He, therefore, urged the political leaders to do the needful for the teachers in order to secure the future of the country.
The NUT president said, “The way forward is to tell our political leaders to consider the fact that the future of this country lies with the quality of children that the teachers will be able to produce. Anyone that is not happy with the work he or she is doing will not be able to bring out the best.”
“We want to appeal to the government to do the needful by creating an enabling environment for teachers. They should give them training, exposure to international training, the allowances should be attended to. These things should be done.”
Olukoya appealed to the government to consider restructuring the education sector and its curriculum to meet the current societal standard.
“We are talking about restructuring, education too needs it in the area of curriculum development. It is high time we developed another curriculum that will meet the level of the society,” he said.”
The NUT president further stressed that the celebration of teachers’ day in Nigeria was done on a low key because of the state of things.
“At the just concluded national delegates’ meeting in Minna, Niger State, we directed all our teachers to go low key with the celebrations,” he said.