As Nigeria Joins the rest of the global community to mark World Teachers’ Day, the Federal Ministry of Education said it has commenced the pilot implementation of the increase in retirement age to 65 or 40 years of service for teachers and education officers Guidelines to ensure seamless implementation has been negotiated and outstanding salaries of affected teachers will soon be paid before December 2021.
President Muhammadu Buhari stated this in a message to the World Teacher’s Day commemoration and Presidents’ Teachers Schools Excellence Awards, held at at eagles’ square Abuja.
President Buhari assured Nigerians that the implementation of most of the targets in the positioning of teachers would be achieved by January 2022, adding that teachers’ welfare is paramount in the scheme of things and negotiations are ongoing to ensure that salary is prioritized.
The 2020 World Teachers Day in Nigeria is phenomenal as all that is needed to invigorate and revitalize the teaching profession was packaged and the Minister of Education is mandated to implement accordingly’. I am not going to recount the entire components for implementation; however, the Federal Ministry of Education has commenced the pilot implementation of the increase in retirement age to 65 or 40 years of service for teachers and education officers Guidelines to ensure seamless implementation has been negotiated and outstanding salaries of affected teachers will soon be paid before December 2021.
“I know that for Teachers to effectively be at the Heart of Education Recovery, there is a need for continuous re-tooling. Teachers and all those connected with teaching and learning will henceforth undergo annual training on modern techniques of teaching and learning This will include digital Literacy training in pedagogy, Information and Communication Technology and others. Education parastatals like NTI, TRCN, CPN, NUC, NCCE, UBEC, PTDF, TETFund, and other non- governmental organizations will partner with the government to achieve this feat,” He said.
The National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Dr Nasiru Idris expressed dismay that some State Governments are yet to implement the provisions of the National Minimum Wage Act for teachers since it was signed into law in 2018.
He called on affected State Governments to implement the National Minimum Wage without further delay.
The NUT National President also lamented that some state government have not been paying primary school teachers’ salaries are and called on the National Assembly in the on-going 4th Alteration Act on the 1999 Constitution, to provide for the funding of Basic Education through First Line Charge.
Reporting by Daniel Adejo, Edited by Adeniyi Bakare