The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has urged the government to take teachers’ salaries seriously and ensure that they are paid as and when due.
Bellnews reports that Obi made the demand in a social media post on Thursday while felicitating with teachers on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day.
He said that teachers play a critical role in nation-building, and their contributions to the development of society should be appreciated and rewarded.
“The foundation of the development of any society is human capital development, which can only be achieved through education and the immeasurable contribution of teachers,” Obi said.
“So, there cannot be any true development in a society without the critical input of the educators who are our teachers.”
Obi said that the great rigour, hard work, patience, and dedication most teachers in different schools and institutions, especially at the basic level, put into their work to ensure that their students can become the best in learning and character deserve special acknowledgement and commendation.
He said that the many feats recorded in the education sector in Anambra State under his administration as the Governor would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of the teachers in the State.
Obi also called for the government to intervene in schools owned by private and voluntary agencies and ensure that their teachers are paid as their counterparts in public schools.
“We need to revolutionize education in the country by aggressively reducing the present 22 million out-of-school children and bringing them back to school,” he said.
“This we can achieve by making more investment in education and employing more teachers.”
Obi encouraged the teachers to remain resolute and patient despite the present hardship prevalent in the nation.
“We all look forward to better days, the dawn of the ‘New Nigeria’,” he said.
The full statement reads:
I would like to celebrate all the teachers in Nigeria today, as the global community marks World Teachers Day. I celebrate them for their commitment to the task of nation-building. It is often said that the building of great nations begins in the classrooms.
The foundation of the development of any society is human capital development which can only be achieved through education and the immeasurable contribution of teachers. So, there cannot be any true development in a society without the critical input of the educators who are our teachers.
The great rigour, hard work, patience, and dedication most teachers in different schools and institutions, especially at the basic level, put into their work to ensure that their students can become the best in learning and character, deserve special acknowledgement and commendation.
I have always celebrated teachers in Nigeria, whenever the opportunity comes. For example, Mr Akeem Badru, who won the 2023 Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Award. I have also maintained that the government should begin to celebrate Nigerian teachers who through hard work and dedication, have distinguished themselves in many ways, rather than celebrating individuals who contribute to the challenges facing us as a nation.
The many feats we recorded in the education sector in Anambra State under my administration as the Governor would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of the teachers in the State.
We need to revolutionize education in the country by aggressively reducing the present 22 million out-of-school children and bringing them back to school. This we can achieve by making more investment in education and employing more teachers.
I urge the government to take teachers’ salaries seriously and ensure that they are paid as and when due. At the basic education level, which is the most critical, governments should intervene in schools owned by private and voluntary agencies, and ensure that their teachers are paid as their counterparts in public schools. I encourage the teachers to remain resolute and patient despite the present hardship prevalent in the nation. We all look forward to better days, the dawn of the ‘New Nigeria’
Happy World Teachers’ Day.