By Funmilayo Adeyemi

Hon. Abubakar Fulata, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on University Education has called for salary increment for primary, secondary and university teachers.

The chairman said the teachers should  earn N250,000, N500,000 and N1 million respectively as monthly renumeration.

Fulata was speaking at a One-Day National Stakeholders’ Workshop on the Development of a Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector (2023-2027), in Abuja on Thursday.

Fulata said that it is important for Nigerian teachers to be more encouraged by paying them adequately to teach the children.

He also stressed the need to translate all subject textbooks into local languages so as to catch up with the world.

According to him, efforts have been made by past administrations as regards the country’s education but those efforts had not yielded the  desired results.

“It is a thing of concern that from decades, several efforts on policies made by successive government to resuscitate and improve the education sector and those efforts have continued to create very little progress.

“All over the world, the subject of language of instruction has always been local language of those countries. If you go to the UK, education is taught in English, if you go to France, education from the basic level up to the tertiary level is taught in French.

“It is in Nigeria that you teach language of instruction in English. Our problem has always been that we are teaching our children subjects they ought to have been taught in their local language.

“All Mathematical, Physics, Chemistry textbook and what have you should be in our local languages. There is no way we can catch up with the world if we continue teaching our children in a foreign language.

“No primary school teacher should earn less than N250,000 in a month, no secondary school teacher should earn less than N500,000 and no university teacher should warn less than 1million in a month.

“The nation must declare a state of emergency in education. We must commit at least 25 per cent to 30 per cent of our national budget to education.

“It is high time we pay them adequately so that them can teach our children,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said that the ministry has great policies on papers but they are not meeting the needs of the people.

Mamman explained that the country’s education does not translate to the needs of the society, hence the need to critically have a roadmap that would translate to development.

He added that those roadmaps must however be implemented within the shortest timeline.

“President Bola Tinubu has charged the ministry to do all it can to reposition the sector.

” We have problems that has been militating the visions, missions and objectives on ground. We have great and fantastic policies but the issue is that our people are not seeing our problems addressed.

“We have institutions churning out graduates who are not employable and we cannot go on like this forever.

“So, in line with our President’s mandate, we must have a roadmap to guide the implementation of how to take the sector forward.

” The idea of the conference is to have a whole lot of time for implementation of our policies,” he said.

He charged participants to work within limited time so that Nigerians could begin to feel the impacts of the policies made within the timelines.

He pledged to engage state governments on the ministry’s crusade to move the sector forward.

In the same vein, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, emphasised the need to recognise gender mainstreaming in the roadmap so that Nigeria will have the benefit of a balanced education system.

“Education, you would all agree is one sector of development that Nigerians have been known to speak with one voice in terms of its importance to development.

“However, this recognition of its importance is yet to translate to tangible results that show that an educated person stands a better chance of living a fulfilled life.

“This disconnect, between purpose and reality, could be said to be responsible for inadequate attention to the sector, wrong perceptions of the relative importance of the different forms and types of education.

“Indeed, I must also say that the inability of our youths to gain employment after going through the rigors of academic may be responsible for a gradually building dis-interest in the pursuit of education,” he said.

Sununu, however, said this trend must be curtailed to make Nigerian education responsive to every day realities and beneficial to the individual as well as the nation. (NAN)(www nannews.ng)

Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede

By Funmilayo Adeyemi

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has solicited an enabling law for private schools to grow the nation through education.

Speaking in Abuja at a Dinner/Award night to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Africa International College (AIC) and Africa Community School, Gowon said government alone could not provide support for every institution, but an enabling law would do a great deal for them.

The event which also featured a book launch, authored by the Executive Secretary of the School, Mrs Caroline Yakubu, has the theme: ”Celebrating Unlimited Grace.”

Gowon was represented at the occasion by his younger brother,  Dauda Gowon.

“The private schools are there to help the nation grow through education, not flashy education but education that builds, not education that destroys but education that helps the nation grow.

“Government cannot afford to support every institution because it is not practicable but they should make enabling laws that will not tie their hands from doing many things they should be able to do.

“For example, if they want to have an e-library, is it difficult or easy, if they want to have a good scientific laboratory, is it easy or is it difficult.

“In other words, if the equipments are not manufactured in Nigeria, will they have any problems at the ports, such things are the assistance I expect the government to give institutions like this,” he said.

He also called on the government to address the issue of multiple taxation on private schools, saying this could pose a challenge to the running of their institutions.

“Government should avoid multiple taxation on private institutions but ensure fair taxation.

“What this will lead to is that institutions will invariably put this burden of multiple taxation on the parents when fees are being made. So make tax easy and very open so that people will be happy if they are paying taxes,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the school, Mrs Caroline Yakubu, while speaking on the book titled: “‘Success Pathways’ meto stablish educational system,”  said dedication and consistency are key to success in life.

“The message basically is the fact that whatever you desire to do, when you are determined to do it, nothing can stop it.

“No matter the challenges because definitely if you want to succeed, you must be prepared to face the challenges but you also must be determined that whatever the road blocks are or that may present themselves as challenges you must be focused and determined,” she said.

Yakubu noted that the country needed quality education to grow every other sector and this would be achieved if the environment is conducive enough for investors to thrive.

“Quality education is expensive and the best the government can do for us, particularly private school owners is to create the enabling environment for us.

“They can also help us to access funds because we have a lot of needs that we are battling with as it were especially in terms of facilities, and the maintenance of the facilities.

“Whatever resources that we need, we will appreciate that the government come in no small measures to help us. Another thing that the government can do is to reduce the multiplicity of tax . It’s been a major problem for private school owners,” she said.

On security in schools, she called on stakeholders to come together to address this,  saying that security is not just the government business but the business of all. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)