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Buhari’s mouth-watery package for teachers on World Teachers’ Day
BY NICHOLAS ABE
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday approved a special salary scale and new retirement age for Nigerian teachers.
The president’s gesture, announced by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, was in commemoration of the World Teachers Day.
The president increased the number of service years for the teachers from 35 to 40.
Nigerian teachers have over the years agitated amongst others, an increase in their retirement age, welfare and salaries.
Buhari, at the 2020 World Teachers Day celebration in Abuja, explained that the implementation of the new teachers’ salary scheme was to encourage the teachers in delivering better services
The special salary scale, the president said, was for basic and secondary school teachers.
The president also increased the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65, and the number of service years from 35 to 40.
According to him, these were part of ongoing moves by the government to revitalise and reposition the teaching profession in the country, by introducing what he described as “fundamental and far-reaching changes.”
The president, according to Vanguard, said a review of teachers’ development policies had revealed huge gaps in quantity and quality of teachers at all levels of the nation’s education system. Also, the status and statute of teachers were currently at their lowest ebb.
He said the implementation of the new policies was to attract best brains into the teaching profession and encourage teachers in delivering better services that would produce quality students who would, in turn, contribute to national development.
“Government notes the emergency situation in our educational system with particular reference to the dearth of qualified and dedicated teachers to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at all levels of our educational system.
“To address these challenges and set our country on the path of industrialization where our educational system will produce the needed skills and manpower, I have approved to the following;
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“The reintroduction of bursary award to education students in Universities and College of Education with assurance of automatic employment upon graduation, payment of stipends to Bachelor of Education students as well as granting them automatic employment after graduation is now a government policy.
“The Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) will now fund teaching practice in Universities and Colleges of Education, special salary scale for teachers in basic and secondary schools including provisions for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance.
“Special teacher pension scheme to enable the teaching profession retain its experienced talent as well as extend teachers’ retirement age to 65 years and teachers’ service years to 40, create a career path policy for teaching profession in Nigeria and, teachers’ conversion programme and ICT training to mitigate the current dearth of qualified teachers in the school system,” the president said.
He also approved the following incentives to motivate and restore the lost glory of teachers; building of low-cost houses for teachers in rural areas, sponsorship to at least one refresher training per annum, expansion of annual presidential teachers’ and schools’ awards to cover more categories with outstanding winners to be considered for National Awards and National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) awards.
Others were; “prompt payment of salaries and other entitlements including consideration for first-line charge in annual budgets, timely promotion of teachers to eliminate stagnation, provision of loan facilities, free tuition and automatic admission for biological children of teachers in their respective schools to encourage and retain them in the system.”
The president directed the Minister of Education “to ensure an accelerated implementation of these policies and measures in collaboration/liaison with States/Local Governments, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and other relevant agencies in the system to enthrone a culture of competence, discipline, dedication, increased learning outcomes and better service delivery in the education sector in Nigeria.”