As The World Celebrates Teachers…

Every October 5, the world rolls out its drum to celebrate teachers. The celebration, I suppose, is strictly an acknowledgement of the auspicious role teachers undertake on daily basis. From building lives, giving meanings to lives they never brought to the world, to helping destinies come to limelight, one expects that teachers be treated as the star they really are. But has the society actually been fair enough to them?
On daily basis, without recourse to their lateness to bed, they wake up as early as possible thinking of other people’s children. Off to school to welcome other people’s children and to make sure they are happy, while ensuring that they learn. Teachers check on every child to be sure all is well even to the point of playing the role of nanny. Yet, the society appears to enjoy seeing them poor. We rather measure them by what they earn, not ready to make it better for them but just comfortable at making them feel small. We compare them with professions they made because they chose to be who they are; ‘teachers’. We care less about making them the STAR that they are.
But thank goodness, as long as the global tradition of celebrating professionals remains, Nigerian teachers and their fans, will not forget in a hurry, the 2020 World Teachers Day, uniquely characterised by President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement of an answer to the body’s age long agitation. It is, indeed, a day that marked a new dawn for the Nigerian teachers.
Though not without anticipation any way, the President approved a special salary scale for basic and secondary school teachers, including provisions for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowances.
Special teacher pension scheme to enable the teaching profession retain its experienced talent, increase in the number of service years for the teachers from 35 to 40, automatic employment for graduates of education, reintroduction of bursary award to education students in varsities, colleges of education, building of low-cost houses for teachers in rural areas, sponsorship of teachers to, at leas,t 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.
In addition, a 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.
These incentives, no doubt, are fundamental and far-reaching changes that will not only motivate and restore the lost glory of teachers; they are capable of revitalizing and repositioning the teaching profession in the country. More so, as teachers are retained in the system, they are encouraged to deliver better quality services.
Recall that it was said, in the past, that a teacher’s reward is in heaven, a compliment that should ordinarily draw some attraction to the teaching profession, but rather smacks of an obvious irony that keeps one wondering from whence came the myth.
It is no longer news that teaching profession has become so denigrated to the point that merely suggesting the teaching profession to an intending JAMB candidate, most times, is considered an absurd wish that must never be allowed to come to pass. This is because becoming a teacher in Nigeria doesn’t exactly align with the prayers of most young Nigerians who seek God’s direction in their search for a glamorous future occupation.
Niki Princewill, a renowned writer, captured this in one of his pieces on the plight of the classroom teacher when he wrote that “aside from the snide remarks which undergraduates studying education struggle to endure on a daily basis from peers of other disciplines (which are considered to be more honorable and economically viable), a great portion of ‘Edu’ students, already seem to have programmed their immediate-future endeavors away from the classroom.”
From the recurring long and dry spells of unpaid salaries in the public educational sector, to the exploitative tendencies in the capitalist private schools, teaching, which hitherto was the dream profession of young school leavers, deemed most honourable to the envy of every other profession, suddenly assumed a posture of a ‘cursed’ trade, left at the mercy of probably the academic weaklings and frustrated job seekers.
This shows, to a large extent, the very little value we placed on the noble teaching profession as a nation. The outcome was not just a loss of interest in the business, but an upsurge of brain drain in the profession which has resulted in the fallen quality of output – an outright emergency situation in our education system with particular reference to the dearth of qualified and dedicated teachers at all levels of the system.
Like the president said, the implementation of the new policies will definitely 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. It is also expected to set our country on the path of industrialisation where our education system will produce the needed skills and manpower. Eventually, it is hoped that a culture of competence, discipline, dedication, increased learning outcomes and better service delivery in the education sector in Nigeria will be enthroned.

By: Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi