By Robert Egbe
The branch Chairman of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Oshodi-Isolo branch, Comrade Salau Adams Kolawole, has said that its members, who are unable to foot their medical bills, will get some financial support.
Kolawole said the gesture was necessary because teachers needed to keep fit even though, like other civil servants and public servants, they do not earn much.
However, he told The Nation that it only applied to the branch members who participated in the medical check-up organised as part of the one-week 2019 World Teachers’ Day celebration.
Kolawole, who is also the chairman, Congress of Chairmen, NUT Lagos State, noted that the state government was in the process of beginning a health insurance scheme for its teachers.
Explaining why the branch partook in the celebration, he said: “We believe that teachers are emulating God Almighty who is the first teacher. When you find yourself in this profession you are unarguably doing a humanitarian job, a humanitarian job in the sense that you are dealing with leaders of tomorrow, because all of us believe that no nation can be better than the quality of its teaching service. That is why like in every other part of the world teachers all over Lagos State celebrate every October 5th with pomp and pageantry.”
He urged stakeholders to fight for teachers’ welfare.
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“When you don’t take care of teachers, how do you expect them to give their best? They have their children too, their families to take care of, they want to ride cars like other people. It’s unfortunate when you read pages of newspapers about the stupendous amounts, unreasonably that taken by ministers and elected officials,” Kolawole said.
The Oshodi-Isolo branch ended its World Teachers’ Day celebration on Saturday after holding a series of activities from Monday, September 30 till Sunday, October 7.
The activities included a friendly football match, empowerment programme, medical, fitness walk and indoor games, Jumat service, march past and a church service.
Aside from the medical checkup, the branch also organised a voluntary blood donation exercise in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Health.
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