NUT blames teachers’ dearth on poor salary
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), has blamed mass exodus of teachers at both primary and secondary schools in the country especially in Niger state, due to poor condition of service and remuneration.
Worried over the act, the union appealed to state government to reintroduce some allowances for teachers in the rural areas to motivate and retain them in service.
The Union’s chairman in Niger, Ibrahim Umaru, made the revelation during the 2017 celebration of World Teachers Day tagged: “Teaching in Freedom, Empowering Teachers” in Minna on Thursday.
It would be recalled that World Teachers Day was set aside by UNESCO to honour and celebrate teachers for their immense contributions to humanity and national development.
He called on the state government to pay the outstanding arrears owed some primary schools teachers in August and October and that the Ministry of Education and SUBEB should redouble efforts toward releasing and implementing promotion of affected teachers to boost their morale and improve educational system.
Umaru said: “We appealed to the state government to intensify effort to settle our retired teachers who are patiently waiting to be paid their entitlement. Government should also make adequate provision of instructional materials to schools to make teaching and learning effective.”
He said that for qualified, trained and experienced teachers to be retained in the system, government must come up with policies that would make teachers and the teaching profession more attractive.
He advised government to adopt the procedural recruitment policy by allowing all the statutory recruitment agencies such as Teachers Registration Council (TRC), State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) and other vital agencies to be involved in the process.
