Boon to born teachers

Tunji Adegboyega

ALTHOUGH details of the new welfare package for teachers in basic and secondary schools by the Federal Government on October 5, to mark this year’s World Teachers Day are yet to be released, the fact that teachers could be remembered by the Federal Government is still something to cheer. Apart from their salaries that are to be enhanced, other welfare packages include: increase in the number of service years for the teachers from 35 to 40 and retirement age moved from 60 to 65 years. Other packages are: rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance, special pension scheme,

tuition-free and automatic admission for biological children of teachers in their respective schools to encourage and retain them in the system.

In addition, bursary award is to be reintroduced for the benefit of education students in universities and colleges of education, with the assurance of automatic employment upon graduation. Similarly, Bachelor of Education students are to enjoy some stipends, also with the guarantee of automatic employment after graduation.

According to President Muhammadu Buhari: “To address the challenges and set our country on the path of industrialisation where our educational system will produce the needed skills and human capital, I have approved the following:

“That in order to attract the best brains into the teaching profession, the policy of encouraging the best graduates to take up career in teaching is hereby restored.”

The gestures were approved by President Buhari and announced by Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, in Abuja.

Without doubt, these are well-meaning measures to boost teachers’ morale in the country. Some reports said education graduates may begin to earn about N300,000 per month. This is not a bad idea, but whether it is affordable across board is the issue. The truth is that in Nigeria, many workers are underpaid and overworked. Our wage structure is deceptive and fraudulent. When you look at the salaries of many civil servants, including those with high-sounding titles, you see a huge discrepancy between what they earn and what they spend. Many of them have their children educated abroad without anyone asking how they are doing it.

Despite the fact that this is the general trend, teachers’ plight is particularly pathetic because they had been relegated for several years. They don’t have access to public funds. Yet, hardly are they remembered by anybody. Indeed, many young men and women do not look forward to teaching as a career. Many of them who ended up in teacher training colleges or colleges of education these days do so as a last resort; that is when all else has failed and they do not want to continue staying at home.

Yet, it had not always been so. A time there was when being a teacher was a thing of joy and pride. They were highly celebrated. Those of them posted to the rural areas then had some of the best things that those remote places could offer. The parents of their pupils or students usually sent farm produce, bush meat, etc. to them as gifts in appreciation of their noble services to their wards and the community. The parents gladly released their children to fetch water for the teachers, as well as do some other household chores. The teachers, back then, were influential and they were indisputable opinion leaders in their own rights.

Indeed, I still remember my secondary school days when some of our teachers had car loans like civil servants, with some of them buying brand new Fiat and Lada cars. I remember how the teachers cherished those cars and would proudly hold the keys in a way that people would notice they owned cars. I was not interested in teaching then not because it was not a good job but because I had made up my mind to go into journalism as far back as when I was in form three.

But somehow, things later changed, and, to use the general parlance here, we found ourselves in the mess we are in; a mess which relegated teaching to the background, and the country is reaping the fruits of that neglect. If we say education is the bedrock of development, and we mean what we say, we would never relegate the place of teachers because they are the ones that mould people right from the most basic classes in schools to the tertiary level. It is the teacher that taught virtually everyone, no matter what they have become in life: journalists, engineers, accountants, lawyers, surveyors, and even doctors that we now see as indispensable. If they were not taught by teachers, they would not have been what they are today.

If we appreciate this fact of life, how come we have so neglected teachers such that our young ones are not interested in pursuing teaching as a career? The answer is simple: we merely pay lip service to the importance of teachers in the county. It is so bad that many of the teachers who found themselves in several private schools are paid peanuts for the services they render. Somehow, those of them in government schools are at least a shade better.

Without doubt, the measures announced by the president should naturally amount to much for born teachers, many of whom have voted with their feet from the job for greener pastures. But that is to the extent that they do not experience hiccups at the level of implementation. As we know, many good policies on paper usually crash at that bus stop. President Buhari directed the Minister of Education to ensure accelerated implementation of these policies and measures in collaboration with states and local governments, as well as the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and other relevant agencies. This is my fear. Even with policies involving only one ministry or government agency, the bureaucracy is a problem. Palms must be greased before the relevant files move from table to table. Now that we have states and local governments involved, we need no one to tell us that there are many hurdles to cross to arrive at the desired destination envisaged by the president. Already, some states are saying the Federal Government cannot dictate to them on this. This is understandable. And it is pointer to the possibility that the state governments were not consulted before the Federal Government announced the measures.

So, it is not yet Uhuru on this matter. But, nothing spoil. The way forward is to bring the stakeholders to a round table to iron out the grey areas so that the teachers can begin to enjoy these goodies which would ultimately be in the interest of education and the country at large. It is in the interest of the Federal Government to see this through because it is no use just making fanciful pronouncements without following up on implementation. Just as no production process is complete until what is produced gets to the consumer, government policies, no matter how well intended, are also useless until the beneficiaries begin to feel the impact of such policies. There is a wide world of difference between dreams and deeds.

Dad, gone too soon!

CAN’T believe it is five years since my father, Special Apostle Gabriel Adeshina Adegboyega died. His journey to the Great Beyond began with a sickness he never recovered from. He was on his way to church for a midweek programme when he suddenly took Ill. When I was called on phone that he was sick, I knew it must have been something serious. He was not one to fall sick often, despite the fact that he died exactly a week to his 80th birthday on August 11, 2015. As a matter of fact, I cannot recall a day he could not go to work throughout the years I lived with him on account of being sick. The man never joked with his work and he was proud of his over 30 something years service in Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, where he began his career as a junior staff and eventually retired as a manager, despite the fact that he never went to university. He often regaled us with the story of how his parents were warned by a female relation that was feared in the family that if they wanted him to live, then he must never go to school, that he should go and learn typing. Since the woman’s word was law then, his parents had no choice but to obey. But, being the adventurous and industrious person that my father was, he not only learnt typing, he also took courses in shorthand, and did exceedingly well in the Pitman’s courses he took in both. His spoken and written English was flawless such that it was difficult to believe that he never had university education.

Special Apostle Adegboyega was a no-nonsense fellow. A strict disciplinarian who did not suffer fools gladly. Despite the fact that he never had university education, he was ready to support his children who craved for education, a thing he did till he breathed his last in 2015. He was bold to a fault. As a matter of fact, God is yet to create that person that my father cannot look in the eye to tell what he saw as the truth. Be it in the church, the community or even at Union Bank where he spent the better part of his life. I remember how he told off one of his bosses (the manager of the branch where he was accountant) who toyed with the idea of making him his errand boy despite the fact that he was that manager’s deputy. The man had sent him to help him pick either his wife or kids from somewhere (I can’t remember the details). He did it the first time, thinking it was going to be an inevitable one-off. The second time the manager requested for such a service he told him off. The man tried to truncate his promotion but God intervened, especially as my father was well known by some of the bosses he had worked with at both the Area Office in Ibadan, and the Head Office in Lagos, as a hard working, honest and diligent person. Particular mention must be made of Chief S. O. Ladele in this regard (may his soul rest in peace).

Moreover my father never joked with fasting. Indeed, for him, it was a way of life. And I think it really worked for him because he lived almost to his 80th birthday. For someone that projections from every available seer  at the time said would not live beyond 16 years or so, this was a feat indeed. I can go on and on.

But then, not even an epistle can accommodate all that could be said about my father. He is sorely missed. Yes, he had his frailties like any human being, but remains a father to cherish, even in death.

I seize this opportunity to again thank all those who made his burial eventful and memorable. God bless you all.

Continue to rest in the bossom of our Lord Jesus Christ, Special Apostle G. A. Adegboyega (JP2).

Rest in peace, Baba Pensioner.