World Teachers Day: Nigeria needs additional 250,000 teachers, says Buhari

• Adedamola From Ogun Named Best Teacher In Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday said with over 10 million out of school children in Nigeria, at least, 250,000 teachers would be needed in the country to achieve the recommended teacher to pupil ration of 1:30. Buhari who disclosed this yesterday at the 2018 World Teachers Day celebration in Abuja, lamented that the teaching profession has been regarded as a dumping ground.

According to the President, the profession is being patronised by people who believe that teaching is a part-time job that allows them to engage in other businesses they consider lucrative.Buhari who was represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, explained that the Teachers Registration Council (TRCN) and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) have made tremendous efforts towards putting regulations in place to control the practice of teaching as a profession.

“The council has directed that those who want to build up career in teaching and any uncertified teacher in the school system to obtain professional certificates and licenses from TRCN as a condition for being employed or retained as professional teachers.

The president who presented a brand new car to a secondary school teacher in Ogun State, Patrick Adedamola, who emerged overall best teacher of the 2018 President’s Teachers and Schools Excellent Award, said the federal government is working assiduously to improve teacher education for skills acquisition.In his remarks, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adams Adams, said the ministry has conceived and developed strategy for the professional development of teachers.

Meanwhile, the National President, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Nasir Idris, urged the Federal, State and Local Governments in Nigeria to ensure massive recruitment of qualified teachers and to redouble their efforts in the provision of quality public education that would be affordable and accessible to every Nigerian child.”We also call on relevant International Development Partners to invest more in public schools where the children of the poor masses can be reached, instead of the private schools that are established with the motive of making profit.

Idris also appealed to the Federal Government to give adequate support to the ongoing professionalization of teaching by ensuring that only professionally trained and qualified teachers are recruited to teach in our schools.He said the President’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award, has helped to give hope to teachers and restore the dignity of the teaching profession.

“We call on the Federal Government to approve the payment of the 27.5 percent Teachers Enhancement Allowance to teachers in the Unity Schools and other Federal Government Schools. These teachers should also be allowed to exercise their trade union rights by belonging to the Industrial Unions of their choice.”The Federal Government, as a matter of urgent importance, should organize an Education Summit not just a forum for the traditional paper presentation, but a forum where all stakeholders will meet to resolve and strengthen the weak links and fill all gaps that have incapacitated and bedridden our education system.”