Improve teachers’ welfare

NO education system can rise above the conditions of its teachers. A workforce that is poorly paid, overworked, inadequately equipped and exposed to insecurity cannot be expected to deliver quality education. Yet, across Nigeria, governments continue to shortchange teachers while paying lip service to the importance of education. This must change.

At the 2026 World Teachers’ Day celebration on October 5 in Abuja, the Nigeria Union of Teachers rightly highlighted the persistent challenges facing the profession.

Held under the theme, “Standing with Teachers: 60 Years of Protecting the Profession, Advancing its Status and Shaping our Future,” the occasion also marked six decades of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Teachers.

Six decades after adopting this international framework, Nigeria still struggles to guarantee teachers the dignity, recognition, and material support their profession demands. The gap between official pronouncements and the reality in classrooms remains disgracefully wide.

Consider the failure to implement the Teachers’ Special Salary Scale approved in 2022. Four years later, most state-employed teachers are still waiting for the benefits of a policy supposedly designed to improve their welfare and elevate the profession.

Daily Trust quoted the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, Olusola Adigun, as lamenting that some states had yet to implement the approved 27.5 per cent salary increment for teachers.

This is more than bureaucratic delay. It is a breach of confidence that makes teaching less attractive to talented graduates and encourages experienced professionals to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

Governments cannot demand commitment and excellence from teachers while treating their legitimate entitlements as optional.

With 915,913 teachers, Nigeria faces a teacher shortage of 1.19 million. Worse still, salary arrears have become a source of persistent hardship. By late 2026, the NUT had issued ultimatums to 19 states over outstanding payments.

Teachers were reportedly owed 15 months of fractional pay in Kogi, 10 months in Benue, about 8.5 months in Bayelsa and six months in Ekiti. Ten states had only partially implemented the new minimum wage for teachers, while four had yet to implement it.

These figures expose a disturbing disregard for workers whose livelihoods depend on timely payment. No teacher should have to endure months without full wages and still be expected to teach effectively, support a family and maintain professional standards.

Governments that fail to pay teachers promptly undermine both their welfare and the education of the children entrusted to them.

Recruitment and retention present another challenge. The NUT has raised concerns about teacher shortages, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach communities, where inadequate staffing places excessive burdens on those who remain. Overcrowded classrooms and overstretched teachers are hardly a recipe for learning.

Some states have made efforts to address the shortfall. Daily Trust reported that Gombe had recruited more than 1,000 teachers since 2019 and planned further recruitment before the end of 2026.

Akwa Ibom approved 2,000 additional teachers following the recent employment of 1,000. These initiatives deserve commendation, but isolated recruitment drives cannot substitute for a coordinated national response. Recruitment must be sustained, transparent and merit-based, with priority given to underserved schools.

The uneven implementation of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act is another example of the distance between policy and practice. The law extends teachers’ retirement age from 60 to 65 and their service period from 35 to 40 years.

According to the NUT, about 22 states had domesticated the law. Kaduna began implementation in August 2025 and Niger in January 2026, while more than a dozen states were yet to follow suit.

It is a debatable law, but this inconsistency is indefensible. Teachers should not enjoy different statutory benefits simply because they work on opposite sides of a state boundary.

State governments must comply with the applicable legal framework and also settle outstanding promotion benefits, leave allowances and other professional entitlements.

But welfare extends beyond salaries and retirement benefits. The physical conditions in which teachers work and children learn are equally important.

Reports from across the land describe public primary and secondary schools with inadequate toilets and furniture, dilapidated roofs, damaged doors and deteriorating floors. At some schools, parents have reportedly resorted to hiring teachers themselves, paying each N20,000.

This is an indictment of a system that leaves communities to plug gaps government should address.

Parents already bear considerable financial pressure in providing for their children’s education. They should not have to shoulder the additional burden of supplying essential teaching personnel because public authorities have failed in their responsibilities.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, acknowledged that teachers deserve professional respect, opportunities for career-long development, appropriate resources, fair recognition and good working conditions.

These are worthy sentiments, but teachers cannot pay their bills with official declarations. Respect must be demonstrated through reliable remuneration, adequate staffing, safe classrooms and the resources needed to teach effectively.

The Federal Government and state governments must therefore move beyond ceremonial tributes and publish clear timelines for implementing approved salary structures.

The arrears should be settled, recruitment gaps addressed, and promotion and retirement benefits honoured. School infrastructure must receive sustained funding, while teachers should have access to continuous professional development that equips them for changing educational demands.

Equally urgent is the need to prepare teachers for the technological transformation of education. Governments must invest in digital devices, reliable internet access, electricity, technical support and practical training in artificial intelligence.

Technology must not become another slogan confined to policy documents while classrooms remain unequipped. Its adoption should be accompanied by training, maintenance and safeguards that ensure it improves teaching rather than widens the educational divide.

Ultimately, the quality of Nigeria’s education depends heavily on the people who deliver it. No curriculum reform, digital initiative or ambitious policy can succeed if teachers are demoralised, underpaid and neglected. Governments cannot continue to demand world-class outcomes from a workforce denied the basic conditions for professional excellence.

The annual World Teachers’ Day should be more than an annual occasion for speeches and praise. It should be a moment to measure progress against concrete commitments.

Nigeria must stop celebrating teachers with words while failing them in practice. Improving their welfare is not an act of generosity; it is an investment in the country’s future. A country that neglects its teachers mortgages the prospects of its children.

Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).