Registrar/chief executive officer of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria ( TRCN), Segun Ajiboye says the new salary scale for teachers recently announced by President Muhammadu Buhari, will attract best brains into the teaching profession.
Ajiboye, who stated this on Sunday, also appealed to state governments to key into and implement the new salary scale and other measures announced by the Federal Government, including the extension of teachers’ service to 65 from 60 years.
This, he said, was important because education remains on the concurrent list, and state governments should be ready to implement the new welfare package at their level.
The TRCN boss noted that when fully implemented at both federal and state levels, the best brain would be attracted to teaching while those experienced would be retained.
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According to him, years of neglect of the welfare of teachers who are tasked with moulding the leaders of tomorrow is being attended to by President Buhari to lay solid education foundation for the Nigerian child and boost the morale of teachers.
“Recently the president approved some welfare package for teachers. The approval cuts across new salary structure for teachers, retirement age, some allowances, teaching practice allowances for both lecturers and pre-service teachers, bursary awards for education students, rural housing scheme for teachers, etc.
Presently, the federal ministry of education and the office of head of service of the federation are working out details on the implementation of Mr President approvals. While this is going on it is important for states to be carried along for a smooth implementation at that level given the fact that education is on concurrent legislative list.
He observed that just as quality education was essential to the development of nations, welfare of teachers would motivate performance and impactful teaching.
“The issue of teachers’ welfare in our country has been downplayed over the years. Yes we need police to control crime in our societies, but much more we need the teachers to eradicate crime and criminality in our country. The teachers are the purveyors of quality education. And quality education is sine qua non to development of nations,” he said.
