Who wants to be a Teacher in Nigeria?



As the World celebrates World Teachers’ Day today, all I could think of as I was writing this article was the women and men who choose to be teachers in Nigeria.



In 1994, UNESCO proclaimed 5 October to be World Teachers’ Day, celebrating the great step made for teachers on 5 October 1966, when a special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO recommendation concerning the status of teachers.



Between 1960 and 1985, teachers in Nigeria were highly regarded in the society as they exerted great influence and authority on the people. Fast-forward to 2016, many teachers in Nigeria are owed several months of unpaid salaries; many go to bed hungry, angry and too tired to speak. It is not unusual to see a teacher involved in the business of buying and selling to supplement his or her salary.



Many teachers in Nigeria are poorly paid, work under poor conditions and still use chalks and blackboards for teaching even when their counterparts in other parts of the world have gone beyond white boards to interactive classroom system coupled with teaching aids. The 2016 World Teachers’ Day theme ’Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status’ aptly captures the precarious state of Nigerian teachers and the conditions in which they teach.



Gone are the days of “a teacher’s reward is in heaven,” many teachers want their “reward” now on earth.



To ensure quality education, teachers’ need up to date training and tools that can enable them take advantage of information and communication technology to deliver the curriculum. Government at all levels must take steps to improve the quality of teachers through training and workshops. Agencies, organizations and institutions concerned with training and registration of teachers also need to think of more vibrant ways to make the teaching profession more appealing.



Many teachers will celebrate 2016 World Teachers’ Day on an empty stomach, unable to pay their children’s school fees and unable to wear decent clothes.



Teaching is gradually becoming a career that many young people in Nigeria dread-but who can blame them.







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