The Nigeria Union of Teachers has told the Federal Government to prioritise prompt payment of primary school teachers’ salaries.
Speaking on Thursday with The PUNCH in an interview, Secretary-General, NUT, Dr Mike Ike-Ene, explained that the new Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, must overhaul the sector from scratch, adding that the pry schools in the country must first be taken care of.
He said, “The minister must start with basic education and he is supposed to pronounce education as a disaster. If there are no well-trained teachers, we will just be in the same spot. It baffles me when you see pry school teachers who are old and suffering in various Local Government Areas in the country. The Minister of Education should fight very hard by collaborating with stakeholders to make sure that prompt salary payment of pry school teachers is made first-line charge that is the only time we can be sure there will be progress. You can’t be paying teachers peanuts.”
Ike-Ene also called for the establishment and more focus on technical and vocational institutions, saying that white-collar jobs were nowhere to be found.
“There should be a serious focus on MDGs that concerns education which is the technical and vocational education. Let’s move away from reading, writing, arithmetic. Nigeria should deviate from this issue of an individual having 20 certificates that can’t help this nation. They should open up vocational and technical institutions. If they want to bring this kind of policy, they should train those who will help our children to learn these skills, including agricultural skills.
“The National Senior Secondary Education Commission should be looking into harmonising the syllabus of all secondary schools in Nigeria. The FG, states and private schools should be teaching the same syllabus and do more technical education. Other people interested in core professionals can focus on Maths, English and the rest.”
Also the national president, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Dr Anderson Ezeibe, said, “The current issues at the basic education level border on the issue of out-of-school children in the country. The numbers are not going to get better with the worsening economic situation in the country. Indeed, he has a lot of work to do there.”
