President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a special salary scale for teachers across the country.
The approval coincided with commemoration of the World Teachers Day on October 5.
Buhari, who was represented by Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, during the celebration of the 2020 World Teachers Day in Abuja on Monday, said the new salary scheme is to motivate teachers for greater productivity and effectiveness.
The theme of the 2020 World Teachers’ Day is Teachers: leading in crisis, reimagining the future.
The President increased the number of years of service from 35 to 40 years.
Adamu said the implementation of the new salary scheme is to encourage teachers in delivering better service.
He said teachers have the power to shape and reshape the lives of young people and help learners to enhance their potentials.
“Only great teachers can produce excellent people and students that will make the future of our country great. A positive or negative influence of a teacher on any child will have an effect on that child. Therefore the federal government is ensuring quality education to access,” he said.
Buhari also said his administration has resolved that quality education of teachers in terms of engagement of continued professional development has to be given priority.
“To address these challenges, my administration has approved the following for teachers and the teaching profession. That in order to attract investment in the teaching profession, the quality of the introduction of bursary award has been restored,” he said.
He said there will be a special pension scheme to enable the teaching profession to retain its experienced talents as well as extend teachers retirement age to 65 years and the duration of teachers years to 40 years.
“My administrative has resolved that quality education of teachers in terms of engagement of continued professional development has to be given priority,” he said.
He said there will be Special Salary Scale for Teachers in Basic and Secondary Schools, “including provisions for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance”.
Other promises include building low-cost housing for teachers in rural areas, sponsorship to at least one refresher training per annum to benchmark best practices for improved teaching and learning.
“Expansion of the annual Presidential Teachers and Schools Awards to cover more categories and for the outstanding,” he said.
Buhari said the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) will now fund teaching practice in Universities and Colleges of Education and he has approved the reintroduction of bursary award to education students in Universities and Colleges of Education with the assurance of automatic employment upon graduation.
“The payment of stipends to Bachelor of Education students as well as granting them automatic employment after graduation is now a government policy,” he said.
