‘People With Poor Results Are Going Into Teaching’
On the 2015 World Teachers’ Day
The theme is Empowering Teachers, Building Sustainable Society. The theme was drawn from an angle that when you want to build a sustainable society, there is the need to empower teachers. Of course, a lot of papers were presented on this nationally and at various state levels, including Lagos. It is very traditional to Lagos State teachers. The event is tripartite in nature. All the teachers in our 20 local councils gathered together to mark it. Then each local branch sent 20 delegates to the state for state celebration. And the state sent 20 delegates to Abuja for the national celebration.
From the report that I got from all our branches, including the delegation to Abuja, it was very successful. It was well attended and it was well celebrated.
What are the problems of teachers ?
When you talk of the problems of teachers nationally, you will be talking of insecurity as the case is in the North East. Then we have bad policy and policy summersault of government at the state and federal levels. Addressing the quality in the turnout of trained teachers in our various colleges of education and universities. Lack of teachers in our various classrooms and poor remuneration. In fact, the list is endless. They are just too numerous to mention.
What areas of the problems have you been able to address?
What we have been able to sort out is actually in the area of recognizing teachers and teaching as a profession. And through a struggle from 1993 to 2009, government was able to come in agreement with NUT. That is, specific allowances, about four of them, which constitute about 27.5 of the basic they paid for teachers to actually complement their efforts as professionals.
Two, consistency in the area of manpower development, capacity building, training, workshops and the rest of it. These are things that have been going on that make teaching worthwhile, at least for now.
In the area of remuneration, what are the things that you want the government to do?
Government should understand that Nigerians are always moving in the direction of the sector of the economy that is booming. Presently for instance, the economy is booming in the entertainment industry. Some lawyers are now rappers, reggae musicians and so on. You see somebody who has a Master’s degree in Business Administration becoming a chartered artist. This is where the real money is coming from now and people have moved away from the banking and engineering sector into entertainment sector.
In those days, everybody was looking towards becoming a teacher. The entire community will contribute money together to sponsor the best brain in the community so that he becomes the pride of the community. We want the government to ensure that we have a situation where they will be able to attract the best hands into teaching.
Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox every day of the week. Stay informed with the Guardian’s leading coverage of Nigerian and world news, business, technology and sports.
0 Comments
We will review and take appropriate action.