Reps committee advocates salary increase for primary, secondary, university teachers… 

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

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

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.

He stated that it is important for Nigerian teachers to be encouraged by paying them adequately to teach the children.

Also, he 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 have not yielded the desired results.

“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 earn less than 1 million in a month.

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

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

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

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

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

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

He pledged to engage state governments in 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.