Dogara hails sacrifices of Nigerian teachers

Calls For Improved Teachers’ Welfare

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has commended Nigerian teachers for their service to the development of the Nigerian child and called for opportunities of continuous training and retraining, improved remuneration and provision of requisite infrastructure and facilities for them to impart knowledge on students, in line with global standards.

In a press statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, to mark this year’s World Teachers Day, with the theme, ‘Teaching in Freedom, Empowering Teachers,’ Dogara stressed that empowerment of teachers remains a top priority in all education and development strategies.

He also urged security of the lives of teachers. While expressing delight that security in the Northeast has improved significantly, thereby enabling teachers to resume work, the Speaker, however, called on security agencies to provide adequate protection to all schools in the region and other parts of the country to end the harrowing incidents of kidnappings of teachers and students.

“Teachers are the most important people in the development of any individual and by implication, society. This confers a priority status on them, which sadly, has not reflected in their conditions of service or living standards.

“It is, therefore, important that proper training, remuneration and provision of requisite infrastructure and facilities for teachers to impart knowledge on students in line with global standards are provided.

“Their salaries and allowances must be paid when and as due to encourage them to continue to put in their best in this all- important task that they carry out.

“This will engender improvement in the education sector of Nigeria and produce better trained teachers, as well as finely baked graduates.

“Security of our schools remains a priority. Thanks to the determination of the present administration and the bravery of our military troops, students and teachers in the Northeast can now go to schools freely in most areas.”

He assured that the House would continue to pursue all measures that would promote the development, empowerment and security of the Nigerian teacher, as evidenced in its timely response to issues between teachers and the government that threatened to clog the wheel of progress of the education sector, including increasing teachers retirement age from 60 to 65 years, as requested by leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) when they visited him few months ago.