By Ado Hassan, Sokoto
This year’s World Teachers Day took a different tone in Sokoto and perhaps other states , with basically nothing eventful for teachers to mark the annual celebration.
However, competent sources from teaching related agencies in the state said that the event was centralised to take place in Abuja.
” The state chapter of the NUT has been responsible for organising activities to mark the annual event in previous years.
” They organise activities as march-pass, lectures among others for teachers. But this time around, a circular came to us that the event will be marked in Abuja”, a source told The Nation.
But coincidentally, the State Universal Basic Education(SUBEB) flagged off a comprehensive capacity building training for teachers on Early Child Development(ECD) in Achida, Rabah local government of Sokoto state.
However, such annual events don’t come to pass without sideline remarks while taking stock of issues.
Notwithstanding,
Malam Abubakar Liman who has spent years in the teaching profession says
many Nigerian teachers do recognize themselves productive.
Besides, Liman said while many nations are struggling to develop the education sector through adequate teaching
and research, Nigeria’s story is the opposite.
“Its unfortunate and frustrating that from the
university setting down to the primary school level, the Nigerian
educational sector has been relegated to the background with teacher quality been one of the most affected.”
He remarked further “Many Nigerian teachers love their jobs but are not happy with it. This can be largely attributed to the virtual absence of good salary,
remuneration for achievents, basic equipments and facilities for teachers as well as training and re-training of staff. Others include government employment of low quality and unqualified teachers which add more burden to the qualified one, political involvement in the
sector with many key positions in the ministries and even in schools are now politicized to the extent that individual party membership serves as a key determinant of his/her position in a ministry or school.
“Teachers are not also happy with the profession due to poor
parenting of students which makes learning difficult. For instance, a
child’s father may scold a teacher for punishing his child. Assignment
may also be returned undone.
He advocated for improved teachers salary and remuneration, quality structures in schools as
well as teacher/pupil ratio per class, insulation of education from politics, recruiting professionals and reward to hardwork and performance of teachers by government would boost standards and academic excellence.
