The speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, has
assured Nigerian teachers that the National
Assembly will increase their retirement age
from 60 to 65 years to retain more
experienced teachers in public schools
.
Dogara disclosed this when he received a
delegation from the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) who paid him a courtesy
visit on Wednesday, May 31, in Abuja.
The speaker said that the house would
support an upward review of teachers'
retirement age to benefit Nigerian children,
the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. His words: "We have done
it for the Tertiary
institutions and the Judiciary, so nothing
should stop us from taking the bull by the
horns.
"They say that wine gets better with age. It
was the same consideration that motivated
us to raise that of university lecturers,
raised that of judges.
So this is something
we can pursue.
"Thankfully, it doesn't require constitutional
amendment, it is something we can achieve
by amending the existing law.
"That is the responsibility of the parliament
and we assure you that we will do
something about that so that the benefit
that comes with experience and wisdom
will not be lost."
Dogara said that the welfare and working
condition of teachers must also be
upgraded to enable Nigerian citizens
compete with the global world and produce
citizens that can achieve development that
the country seeks.
"If we don't have people who will sacrifice
their time and energy to impact knowledge
on our children, then like I said, we have
lost the future.
"This government which is a government of
change must be prepared to change the
narrative by ensuring that teachers are
motivated and the condition in which they
work are conducive at all levels, so that they
can deliver on their professional calling," he
said.
The speaker also advised the union to
channel their request for salaries of
teachers to be handed over to state
governments or paid from first-line charge
from the federation account through the
Universal Basic Education Commission to
the Constitution Review of the House of
Representatives for consideration.
Comrade Alogba Olukoya, the national
president of NUT, said the union preferred
that payment of teachers' salaries be
handed over to state governments while
also canvassing for an increase in the
retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65
years.
"We want the responsibilities of paying the
salaries of teachers be handed over to state
governments in which case the salaries
component of the revenue allocation of the
local governments will have to be
transferred to the states and restructure
the fiscal allocation of our national
resources in favour of the states to
guarantee uninterrupted and unfettered
primary education in Nigeria.
"We teachers of Nigeria in primary and
secondary schools do seek and demand
that our retirement age be raised to 65
years to increase the teacher retention rate
in our schools.
"This will help to check the rate at which
experienced teachers are being lost in the
school system whereas younger and
prospective teachers are not recruited to
take their places," Olukoya said. (NAN) In a related development, the federal
government says teaching will soon be one
of the highest earning profession in
Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the minister of
education, Adamu Adamu on Thursday, May
25 at the inauguration of the Governing
Councils of 21 Federal Colleges of Education.
