President Muhammadu Buhari says the implementation of most of the targets in the repositioning of Teaching profession will be achieved by January 2022.
At an event to mark the 2021 World Teachers’ Day held in Abuja, President Buhari stated that revitalisation and re-positioning of teachers was already on course and would significantly impact on relevant issues, pre-service training, remuneration, in-service training, retirement, special allowances and assistance to own low-cost houses.
President Buhari emphasised that there would be more advocacy and consensus building with relevant stakeholders including state governments and others to realise all the targets that would re-position the 21st Century teacher in Nigeria.
The President said; ”the pilot phase for the implementation of teacher’s retirement age from age 65-70 has already commenced.
”The 2020 World Teachers Day in Nigeria was phenomenal as all that is needed to revitalise the teaching profession was packaged and the Minister of Education was 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.”
President Buhari was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono said the 2020 WTD celebration was a huge milestone for teachers in Nigeria following the revitalisation of the teaching profession.
He said; “Accordingly, a national implementation committee was constituted, inaugurated and further broken up into 12 sub-Committees.
“The sub-committees submitted the following resolutions for implementation, the Re-introduction of Bursary Award for the award of N150,000 proposed for undergraduates and N100,000 only to NCE students, Sponsorship to at least one refresher training per annum with UBEC, TETFund, and PTDF assisting in funding the annual trainings as well as building of Low-cost Housing For Teachers In Rural Areas.”
In a joint message from the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Mr Guy Ryder, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Ms Henrietta Fore and the General Secretary of Education International, Mr David Edwards, the partners celebrate what they described as ”exceptional dedication and courage of all teachers, as well as their capacity to adapt and innovate under very challenging and uncertain conditions.”
The International partners said; ”Teachers are at the heart of global education recovery efforts and are key in accelerating progress towards inclusive, equitable and quality education for every learner, in every circumstance.
”Sub-Saharan Africa alone requires 15 million more teachers to reach the education goals by 2030. Surmounting these challenges requires bold commitment, investment and innovation on a scale like never before.”
Global education recovery plans
The partners called on countries to invest in teachers and prioritise them in global education recovery efforts to ensure learners have access to a qualified teachers.
The event witnessed the presentation of Presidents’ Teachers and Schools Excellence Award (PT&SEA) to outstanding teachers and schools across the country.
The awards were classified into different categories such as the 2021 best teachers in public, private schools, best public and private schools and best school administration.
Among the Awardees were; Mrs Bridget Nwabueze, as best teacher in Public Schools, Mr Samuel Ogunleye as the best teacher in Private School and the best Public Schools is Bolade Junior Grammer School, Oshodi .
Also, the best Private School in the country goes to Greater Tomorrow International College, Arigidi, Ondo State while the best School Administrator is Mr Nuhu Musa from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The event which also witnessed parade match from teachers in the 36 states of the federation including the FCT whose teachers won the award.