The Federal Government has commenced implementation of the new enhanced salary structure for its teachers as approved recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, who made this known over the weekend, said the ministry is working in collaboration with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission on the computation of the approved allowances for the federal teachers.
Echono listed some of the allowances, which have now increased the remuneration of teachers to include, rural allowances, science allowances, and hazard allowances among others, stressing that teachers must get their reward here on earth and not hereafter.
He spoke while supervising the conduct of the professional qualifying examination (PQE), administered by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), in which about 17,141 teachers across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory sat for the exercise.
He said: ”Now, even in the public service, every day I am inundated with requests by people who originally studied education but find themselves working in different agencies and ministries, wanting to return to their original careers because now the remuneration will be higher than the civil service scale, and they even have a tenure that extends five years more than what the average civil servant will do.
“And again, we have commenced the implementation of this; we are working closely with the head of service. she has been wonderful and very supportive, and salaries and incomes and wages commission to as we speak, computing those rural allowances, science allowances, hazard and so on to ensure that teachers get their reward here on earth and not hereafter,” Echono said.
He vowed that all unqualified teachers who are teaching in both government-owned and private schools across the country would be flushed out.
Echono warned that nobody should be employed as a teacher if he or she does not have a teaching qualification, adding that if you are not qualified as a teacher, you cannot teach.
“We have commenced the process of enforcing and implementing the policy of allowing only qualified teachers in all our schools across the country. We are starting with government schools and will thereafter move to private schools.
“We are already in good discussion with both states and private proprietors to ensure that this is done because this is the single largest investment you can make to your country, the future generation in ensuring that they get good quality education”, he said.
The permanent secretary added that the conduct of the examination has been encouraging due to some new IT features introduced to checkmate issues of malpractices.
“The process is seamless and with the introduction of technology, we are also improving efficiency and innovations. We believe that going forward, this is something that people can look up to in a regular calendar and as a prerequisite for you to become a teacher in this country. So if you do not have this certification, you are not a teacher; you do not have the right to practice.”
Echono also disclosed that the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Communication, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), and other agencies that require data to have a situation where the identity of all primary school children will be stored as soon as a child registers in any primary school in the country.
“Our ultimate goal in the education sector is to be able to collaborate. We have been doing this with the Ministry of Communication, with NIMC, and also with other agencies that require data.
“We want a situation where from the point where a child registers in any primary school in this country up to death, you have your records, you can update them as you move on but you cannot change your identity,” he said.
According to him, a database of all qualified teachers has been compiled, adding that the government will make available the database to states to facilitate the employment of qualified teachers who are not currently engaged.
Earlier, Jacinta Ogboso, TRCN Acting Director, Specification and Licencing disclosed that about 17,141 were to participate in the batch ‘A’ examination nationwide.
While disclosing that Osun state has the highest number of candidates, she added that all teachers must sit and pass the examination before they would be considered as qualified teachers.
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