Primary School Teachers Should Be Paid N250,000 As Monthly Salary – Lawmaker

A Nigerian lawmaker, Abubakar Fulata, has opined that primary school teachers deserve to earn at least N250,000 as a monthly salary.

The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on University Education stated this while speaking at a one-day National Stakeholders Workshop on the Development of a Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector (2023-2027) organized by the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja on Thursday, Naija News reports.

Fulata, who admonished that the Nigerian government should commit at least 25 per cent or 30 of its national budget to education, suggested that secondary teachers and lecturers should earn at least N500,000 and one million nairas, respectively, if the country is committed to achieving quality education.

He said: “If you want quality education, you must pay them to teach your children very well. Teachers must also be encouraged as it is obtained in the other climes.

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

In his remark earlier, the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, said: “Our education system is not connected to our society or our economy, we cannot say for certain that we are key contributors either locally or globally to the ideas which push societies forward.”

Mamman stressed that the educational system cannot go on like this and that something must be done in line with the aspiration of the president. While noting that the vision is there and the problem always has been meeting the gap between the vision and mission and the actual happening on the ground, the Minister said: “When we receive briefings from agencies, we will see fantastic policies on education but the problem is our people do not see those policies on the ground, they are not seeing the problem addressed and no longer seeing the value of sending their children to school.”

Professor Mamman stated that the high rate of unemployment among graduates can be attributed to the inadequate quality of education they receive, which fails to equip them with the necessary skills for the industries. According to him, industries have continued to express their dissatisfaction with the graduates being produced, as they are deemed unemployable.

The minister emphasized that the purpose of the workshop was to create a roadmap that would serve as a solution to the existing problems. He emphasized the urgency of the matter, stating that they have limited time to devise a plan that will effectively revamp the education sector, starting from the primary level up to tertiary education.

However, the minister urged the state governments to fulfil their responsibilities in order to address the challenges faced in basic education. He highlighted that while the federal government is responsible for approximately 120 unity colleges, the majority of educational institutions fall under the jurisdiction of the state governments.

Also speaking at the event, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Tanko, said the contribution of Stakeholders at the workshop would help in preparing their children for the future and the development of the nation.

He said the recognition of the importance of education is yet to translate to tangible results that show that an educated person stands a better chance of living a fulfilled life.

“This disconnection between purpose and reality could be said to be responsible for inadequate attention to the sector, wrong perceptions of the relative importance of the different forms and types of education,” he said.

“I must also say that the inability of our youths to gain employment after going through the rigours of academia may be responsible for gradually building disinterest in the pursuit of education,” he said.