A senior lecturer in the department of Mass Communications, Ebonyi state University (EBSU), Dr. Chike Onwe, has called on government to pay teachers the way senators are being paid.
Onwe who disclosed this during the celebration of 2024 teacher’s day wondered why they were being neglected in the society.
Onwe, a former commissioner for information and Orientation, Ebonyi state in a keynote address urged teachers to maintain self-efficacy in the teaching profession, describing them as the true heroes of progress in the society.
“We are happy that Ebonyi State Governor promised to strengthen public schools, but if governments are sincere, they should pay teachers more than Senators, because poverty makes one not to be recognized. Salary is what they pay you to shut up.
“But the truth is that teachers should not be treated as civil servants. If the head teachers are given such cars as our governor gave to the resident doctors, the story will change,” the Keynote speaker said.
He urged the teachers to think about how to create self-employment opportunities for themselves, stressing that after God and the priest, the next authority is teachers, and they needed to maintain self-efficacy.
In his speech, the chairman Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Ebonyi state, Comrade Ekechi Francis Okorie, bemoaned the social disregard to the teaching profession in Nigeria.
He described teachers as character moulders and nation builders because of their pivotal roles in shaping the future by nurturing and impacting students and driving educational program process and wondered why charlatans, interlopers and gatecrashers have taken over the teaching profession.
He underscored the importance of teachers’ voices in decision -making process in the profession to integrate their perception into educational policies and foster a supportive environment for the development of the teaching profession and that of education.
Ekechi commended Governor Francis Nwifuru for approving recruitment of 1,000 teachers in the state public secondary schools as replacement of those who exited the profession either by death, retirement or greener pastures.
He noted that the World Teachers Day was targeted at establishing a minimum standard and framework for the welfare of teachers, their social security and professional relevance in the educational, political and economic life of the nations in the world.
“However, to fully harness teachers’ potentials, it is crucial and imperative that their voices are heard and valued in the decision-making process that affects their profession. The importance of valuing teachers’ voices underscores the need to integrate their perception into educational policies and foster a supportive environment for the development of the teaching profession and that of education,” he said.
He called for collective synergy to improve teachers’ service delivery in the discharge of their call in the teaching profession.