Exactly five years ago when late President Muhammadu Buhari on the occasion of the World Teachers’ Day in 2020 announced a ground-breaking package that was meant to change the century-old narrative of Nigerian teachers, parents, students, and all major stakeholders in the nation’s education industry including teachers (themselves) and their admirers all felt the long awaited reward of teachers believed to be warehoused in the heavens was no longer a proverbial fantasy, but indeed a dream come true for Nigerian teachers. We shall see in the course of today’s discourse whether or not the hopes raised half a decade ago have turned real, hopeless, or bizarre.
Today, Sunday October 5, 2025 is World Teachers’ Day (WTD). The theme for the 2025 celebration is “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession.” World Teachers’ Day is celebrated globally every October 5 to honour teachers and recognise their vital contributions to education and society. The day was first proclaimed in 1994 by UNESCO, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Education International (EI), and UNICEF, following the 1966 ILO/UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of Teachers.
Speaking on Monday September 29, 2025 at a symposium organised to mark the 2025 WTD, The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Olatunji Alausa, reaffirmed government commitment to improving the welfare and recognition of teachers in Nigeria; describing them as the custodians of knowledge, the builders of character, and the architects of national future. Alausa hailed teachers as the foundation of every profession, stressing that their sacrifices keep the country alive. “Who makes a doctor? Who makes an engineer? Who makes a professor? It is the teacher,” he said.
It would be recalled that late President Buhari represented by the then Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, at the 2020 WTD approved a special salary scale for teachers in Nigeria just as he also reviewed upward their retirement age and the duration of teaching career to 65 and 40 years respectively. The special incentive package approved for teachers in basic and secondary schools also includes provision for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance. President Buhari also approved the building of low-cost houses for teachers in rural areas just as he assured of prompt payment of salaries and timely promotion to eliminate stagnation. This is in addition to the Teachers Conversion Programme (TCP) and ICT training to mitigate the current dearth of qualified teachers in the school system.
Other aspects of the motivation package announced for Nigerian teachers include the reintroduction of bursary award to education students in universities and colleges of education with the assurance of automatic employment upon graduation. Malam Adamu Adamu said in 2020 that the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFund) had been directed to fund teaching practice in universities and colleges of education. Our duty now to interrogate the extent to which government implemented this set of investments in Nigerian teachers.
It would be easy for Nigerians to know whether or not the pledge that relates the building of low-cost houses for teachers in rural areas has been fulfilled since basic and secondary schools are located in every part of the 774 LGAs in country. The motivation as regards prompt payment of salaries and timely promotion to eliminate stagnation may be part of those failed promises if, for example, we take into account the frustrations of teachers in the FCT who have gone on strike, at least three times this year, to protest the non-payment of their promotion arears and other entitlements. Surprisingly though is the non-implementation of the special salary scale for teachers by some state governments. This is even as late President Buhari declared during the 2020 WTD that “Only great teachers can produce excellent people and students that will make the future of our country great.”
Another aspect of the Buhari’s landmark package of incentives for teachers, which some states are yet to implement, is that which concerns extension of retirement by age or service. Also, there may be nothing wrong in subjecting teachers to a form of screening to ascertain their fitness, Healthwise, before they are allowed to remain further in service. This would evert the retaining of unproductive teachers in service. The screening would also check those who have never being in the teaching scheme for 30 or more years from returning from wherever they’ve been simply to benefit from the retirement age extension.
However, authorities responsible for the screening of potential beneficiaries in states including the FCT where the policy is already being implemented to conclude the process well ahead of the date serving teachers will be due to enjoy the retirement policy. This is to ensure smooth transition into the extension period. A situation where deserving teachers would be out of service before they are re-engaged to enjoy the policy is unwarranted.
Believing that the issues raised in the previous paragraphs, as pitiable as they are, reflect and relate to teachers serving in public schools; the situation is worse with teachers serving in private schools in the country. Some proprietors of private schools (of course, not all) traditionally take advantage of the unemployment crisis to unduly exploit the toil of young Nigerians they employ as teachers; taking their desperation for granted. Teachers in such mushroom private schools are underpaid, yet overworked, and sometimes mistreated.
Again, due to failure of government to establish schools especially in rural communities where sizeable population of school-age children exist, unlicensed private schools are mushrooming in those areas without control. This is a dangerous trend that should not be allowed to thrive. With young graduates from universities’ faculties of education roaming the streets without securing teaching jobs, one doubts if the automatic employment component of the incentive package assured of trained teachers upon graduation is actually real.
Now, with teachers still begging or protesting to be paid monthly salaries and arrears of unpaid entitlements; with teachers not enjoying the special salary scale in some states; and with most or all teachers yet to come across the low-cost houses planned to be built for them; Nigerian teachers are truly not at the premises of the “heavens” promised them five years ago. They are not there yet. May Allah (SWT) touch the heart of those in whose hands lies the fate of Nigerian teachers, Amin.
Happy 2025 World Teachers Day to Nigerian Teachers!
