A Senior Lecturer at Ebonyi State University, EBSU, Dr Emmanuel Chike Onwe, has recommended that Nigerian governments should increase the salary of teachers more than the Senators' allowances in the country.
The Lecturer made the recommendation while delivering his keynote speech on "Valuing teacher voices towards a new social contract for education" during the 2024 World Teachers Day at Abakaliki and described those in the teaching profession as the true heroes of progress in society.
Dr Onwe, a former Commissioner for Information and State Orientation in Ebony urged teachers to maintain self-efficacy in the teaching profession.
He wondered why teachers have been normally taken for granted in society, "as most of them turned backseaters in many events."
"We are happy that the Ebonyi State governor promised to strengthen public schools, but if governments are sincere, they should pay teachers more than Senators because poverty makes one not be recognized. Salary is what they pay you to shut up.
"But the truth is that teachers should not be treated as civil servants. If the head teachers are given such cars as our governor gave to the resident doctors, the story will change," the Keynote speaker said.
He urged the teachers to think about how to create self-employment opportunities for themselves, stressing that after God and the priest, the next authority is teachers, but they needed to maintain self-efficacy to make their voices heard.
Onwe urged the teachers to shun laziness and also to learn and relearn to ensure the effective delivery of their duties.
According to him, teachers grasping and delivering the knowledge of the new trends by acquiring hard and soft skills would signpost them and their talents in society.
The University Don also recommended that the administration officers in the public sectors should give teachers more access to the decision-making process, especially on education issues, and organise seminars and workshops for them regularly.
Earlier in his address, the NUT Chairman in Ebonyi State, Comrade Ekechi Francis Okorie recalled the historic antecedents of the WTD, which he said, owes its origin to the Conference of the Ministers of Affiliate Nations to the International Labour Organization and United Education Scientific and Cultural Organization, ILO/UNESCO who on October 5th 1966 converged in Geneva, Switzerland to consider ILO/UNESCO document on recommendations concerning the status of teachers and education.
To clarify the recommendations, according to Ekechi, it addressed the parlour state of teachers and social disregard for the profession all over the world, particularly in Nigeria, where teaching has become an all-comer affair.
He noted that the event was targeted at establishing a minimum standard and framework for the welfare of teachers, their social security and professional relevance in the educational, political and economic life of the nations in the world.
He described teachers as character moulders and nation builders in considering their pivotal roles in shaping the future by nurturing and impacting students and driving educational programs' progress.
"However, to fully harness teachers' potentials, it is crucial and imperative that their voices are heard and valued in the decision-making process that affects their profession. The importance of valuing teachers' voices underscores the need to integrate their perception into educational policies and foster a supportive environment for the development of the teaching profession and that of education," he said.
He called for collective synergy to improve teachers' service delivery in the discharge of their call in the teaching profession.
Ekechi commended the giant strides and policy trust of Governor Francis Nwifuru in reshaping and revamping the education sector in Ebonyi State, saying he has done well in ensuring the working condition of teachers is enhanced through partnering with them during the last edition of the World Teachers Day.
He extolled Governor Nwifuru for having appointed some teachers as Permanent Secretaries into the state ministries, boards, and parastatals. He described the approval of an extension of teachers' service years by Nwifuru as a bold step to encourage better service delivery in the teaching profession in the state.
He thanked the governor for having granted a waiver for the recruitment of one thousand (1,000) teachers in the state public secondary schools for corresponding replacement of those who exited the profession either by death, retirement or research for greener pastures, also "being among the first governor from the South Eastern Geo- political zone to approve the payment of N70,000 new minimum wage and regular payments of teachers salaries."
He however, tasked all the council chairmen in the state to prioritize the payment of the teachers' salaries as approved by the Federal High Court and Governor Nwifuru who okayed the autonomy of the local government, given the experience of the past where teachers were owed for months due to the inability of the local government authorities to shoulder such huge responsibility.
Ekechi praised Governor Nwifuru for embarking on the promotion of teachers from 2021 till date, the establishment of Ebonyi State University of Aerospace and Engineering in Ezza land and University of ICT in Oferekpe in Izzi, described the new development as his penchant for giving education a priority in the present administration.
In his new appeal to the governor, the NUT State Chairman said: "Like Oliver Twist, we are passionately calling for approval for the payment of the teachers' promotion arrears, approval for the payment of 8/10 months salary arrears of those teachers who were recaptured as a result of the service elongation.
"Others are in-service training if teachers for more quality service years delivery, approval for recruitment of more teachers in the employ of State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB as the UNESCO recommended teachers-pupil ratio of 1.35 has skyrocketed to 1.50 owing to a dearth of the teaching personnel in the employ of SUBEB and assistance for the reconstruction of the union's parameter fence that collapsed.
"Your Excellency Sir, considering the busy schedule of the union's leadership and its frequent journeys, the union passionately requests your consideration for the donation of the 18-seater bus to augment the ageing one that was purchased decades ago," he pointed out.
Also, the NUT State Secretary, Basil Asuquo, pleaded with the government at all levels to employ more teachers in public schools, make the environment conducive, and prioritize the welfare of the education workforce by increasing their salaries.
"The government should pay rural allowance to teachers in the hinterlands to motivate more teachers to go to the rural communities to teach, "Asuquo pleaded.
The Chairman of the occasion and Commissioner for Primary and Secondary Education in the state, Prof Paul Awo Nwobashi, said teachers must comply with what is going on, especially by being ICT compliant for effective delivery.
"Some of you don't have an Android phone, and some of you are even afraid to touch a laptop; teachers are always under-grading themselves. They agreed to belong to the ordinary class, and that's not supposed to be so, because you made the classes, engineers, doctors, leaders, everything, and you are the builders.
"We wish you organize workshops and invite facilitators to talk so that your morale can be boosted because, in most countries in the world, teachers are most paid workers," Nwobashi observed.
The Commissioner disclosed early that Ebonyi ranked third on high-quality literacy among the Nigerian youths in the country and urged the teachers to put more effort into getting the pupils and students on the right side of educational quality.
The State Head of Service, Mrs Ritamary Okoro who represented Governor Francis Nwifuru at the event, equally advised teachers to work on quality representation, saying his administration appointed their members to be permanent secretaries and assured more recognition would be given to those in the teaching profession while in office.
He observed that the celebration of teachers every 5th of October had become an annual ritual meant to commemorate their efforts towards nation-building and the significance of promoting the teaching profession around the globe.
He expressed joy that the occasion unveiled the ethical roles of every teacher to play in reshaping the future of children and the entire populace as far as education is concerned.
Nwifuru said his administration understands that teachers are the backbone of the educational institutions, and that necessitated the ongoing recruitment of over 1,000 teachers and other projects already embarked on to develop the education sector in the state.
