Negligence of teachers’ welfare by FCT councils’ chairmen

Is there a profession more significant to a nation’s future than teaching? Teachers help students to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the global economy, build their intellectual curiosity and support their social and emotional growth. Yet when it comes to welfare packages, teaching is the most ill-treated profession in most countries, […]

Is there a profession more significant to a nation’s future than teaching?

Teachers help students to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the global economy, build their intellectual curiosity and support their social and emotional growth. Yet when it comes to welfare packages, teaching is the most ill-treated profession in most countries, including Nigeria.

It’s perfectly reasonable for a teacher to earn a decent salary as that will serve as a motivation to effectively and wholeheartedly do the job of impacting knowledge with dedication. However, the condition of a Nigerian teacher, if not the worst, is among the worst in the country. In the FCT, teachers, especially primary school ones, are going through what seems to be the most difficult times. Their monthly salaries come in the middle of two months and arrears have not been paid for some months and the 35 per cent increment is nowhere to be found.

Today, massive challenges confront teachers in the FCT ranging from issues of non-payment of salaries, non-payment of the minimum wage and arrears backlogs to insecurity in some parts of the FCT. Thus there is an urgent need for addressing these issues.

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Often, people say a teacher’s reward is in heaven, while others seek to inherit the earthly and heavenly glories; this is very unfortunate.

It is, therefore, high time the FCT councils’ chairmen began to think about increasing the welfare packages of teachers for improved educational development. 

Despite several appeals to those concerned to pay up the backlog of arrears to the FCT teachers, the situation is regarded as a story

To save the lives of these teachers, the FCTA must pay them their backlog of arrears.

 

Abdullahi Adamu wrote via [email protected]