Teachers key to education sector recovery process – ASUSS

Celebrates retirees with gifts, cash worth millions

To take education in the country out of problems occasioned by COVID-19 and ensure students regain lost ground, teachers have been identified as crucial to the recovery process.

Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, Comrade Kazeem Alabi Labaika, stated this at the group’s eighth celebration of World Teachers Day, held at Reagan Baptist Church hall, Yaba, Lagos.

Speaking on the theme of this year celebration, ‘Teachers at the heart of education recovery’, Labaika said it is apt and timely, saying teachers are the ones to kickstart the process.

The ASUSS chairman noted that COVID-19 has significantly thrown the education system into crisis, calling on the federal and state governments to brainstorm on how to re-invent the system, warning that education in the country is on the verge of collapse.

While commending the Lagos State government for its efforts toward the sector, Labaika, however, stressed the need for them to do more and frontally confront the challenges besetting the sector, while increasing allocation to fund education.

He said at the heart of the recovery process is welfare of teachers, which include housing.

According to him, the union is already embarking on its own housing programme to complement that of the state government, noting that in the next two months, they are going to start a housing scheme in Ogijo, that can accommodate 1, 000 teachers.

ASUSS also urged the state government to look into the issue of payment of pension to retirees, complaining that members are not paid as at when due.

He said government should fashion out other means to ensure teachers, civil servants in general collect their retired benefits as at when due, not in two or three years time.

At the event, Chairman, Basic Education Union of Nigeria (BESUN), Lagos State chapter, Comrade Olusegun Titus Faribido, also sued for prompt payment of retirees.
He said the union would provide N100,000 as severance package to retirees, in addition to their welfare schemes, which include provision of land and housing for teachers at affordable prices.

At the event, the union honoured Mrs Morayo Roseline Oyin-Adejobi, who emerged second runner up at this year Teachers Naija reality TV show season two, for projecting the image of secondary school teachers in positive light.