FG inaugurates committee on repositioning of teaching Profession

Maryam Abeeb,Abuja

The federal government through the Ministry of Education has inaugurated National Implementation Committee on the revitalization and repositioning of teaching profession in Nigeria recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu during his remark at the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, said the assignment is a critical part of the government response to the emergency situation in the educational sector with focus on the dearth of qualified and dedicated teachers.
According to him, the universally accepted dictum states that no system can rise above the quality of its teachers, lamenting that the teaching profession has been neglected with all the attendance consequences in brain drain, poor incentives and poor quality graduates.
He said this has led to clamoring for improved general welfare and conditions of services for the teaching profession across all tiers of government.
Adamu stated that knowledge, dedication and competence of teachers to a large extent , should be rthe determining factors to the quality of graduates in institutions and their contributions to national development.
He listed the approved incentives, which came about as a result of extensive consultations, reviews and concurrence of critical stakeholders, includes: enhanced entry point for teachers in the Civil Services by restricting entry into the teaching profession only to highly gifted, academically outstanding students/scholars with the right attitudinal and emotional disposition.
Also, Special teachers’ salary scale for teachers in basic and secondary schools, including provisions for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance: Harmonized retirement age and teaching services years for teachers in Nigeria.
Special Teacher Pension Scheme to enable the teaching profession retains its experienced talents as well as to extend teachers’ retirement age to 65years and teaching services years to 40 years: create a career path policy for teaching profession in Nigeria.
According to him, the main terms of reference of the committee is to come up with an implementation strategy towards the realization of all the policies approved by government.
He said that the committee has been sub-divided into 12 subcommittees to focus on specific areas of intervention.
He gave assurance that the Ministry is committed to providing the necessary support to ensure smooth implementation of the policies.
‘’ In this regard, we shall be presenting a memorandum at the next National Council on the Establishment holding before the end of the year on establishment related issues derived from the policy directives.
‘’We are also interfacing with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation for the re-introduction of the bill that was passed by the 8th National Assembly which was not assented to by the President action by the 9th assembly,’’ he noted.