A university Don, Prof. Aloy Ejiogu, has enjoined the government to start looking into the welfare of teachers in the country and stop paying lip service to the problems that face teachers and the teaching profession.
Ejiogu made this call on Tuesday at Lagos at the Maltina Teacher of the year 2017 Flag-Off, where he decried that apart from poor remuneration, there is also a lack of policy clarity and planning, leading to demotivation, disillusionment and frustration.
He lamented that there is probably no other profession in the country that is faced with a plethora of issues like the teaching profession.
Ejiogu said: “Also listed among the countless travails of the Nigerian teachers are: inadequate funding of the education sector, poor teacher remuneration and working condition, lack of professional and in-service trainings, non or short internship programmes, high teacher-pupil ratio, unhealthy government interference and politicization of education, lack of autonomy by the Nigerian union of Teachers and weak entry qualification. The list of such travails can be endless/inexhaustible, nauseating and embarrassing in equal measure.”
While stressing on the need for teachers to be accorded their rightful place in the society, Ejogu stated that the role teachers play in the society surpassed even the roles played by the doctor and the priest since both of them were taught by teachers and without teachers they wouldn’t have gotten their presbyterian vocations and medical professions.
He also emphasized that teachers are drivers of societal norms and they also serve as “surrogate parents”, counsellors, mentors and friends to our children and this creates a positive impact on the lives of the children.
He said: “Teachers are the first set of people who give a child a sense of self or validation outside of the home. If they are successful at imparting their knowledge and building a child’s confidence in his or her abilities, or in encouraging a child to pursue certain skills or even dreams, then they could have had a positive impact on that child’s life.”
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Nicolaas Vervelde, was of the the view that through the Maltina Teacher of the year initiative, the nation can become inspired to accord teachers their deserved credit and bring the necessary deserved respect back to the teaching profession.
Vervelde, who was represented by Kufre Ekanem, the Corporate Affairs Adviser at Nigerian Breweries Plc, highlighted that the Maltina Teacher of the year award was launched in 2015 by Nigerian Breweries to reccognise, celebrate and motivate teachers in the country and it is part of the company’s commitment to the development of education in the country.
Vervelde also pointed out that the award was part of Nigerian Breweries under the Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund and since its inception, it has built over 280 classrooms, 30 libraries in both primary and secondary schools across 44 communities in Nigeria and impacted over 20,000 students directly from the country.
He made it clear that the before one can emerge as the winner of the Maltina Teacher of the year, he or she must have emerged from his state as a state champion.
The winner will go home with N1 million as well as the N500,000 as the state champion and also receive N1 million annually for five years.
He stated that the Maltina Teacher of the year initiative has produce 43 state champions, with two overall winners and while calling for interested participants to start applying, Vervelde stated that applications will begin on May 9 and close on July 7, 2017.
The Eagle online reports that interested teachers are to download application forms from the Maltina website: www.maltina-nigeria.com, and the application forms should be completed and uploaded to the website or sent by an email to maltinateacherofthe year@heineken.com or it can be posted to P.M.B. 12632, Marina, Lagos.
The Eagle Online also reports that teachers from public and private secondary schools across Nigeria can participate and that the panel of judges will ensure that entries received will lead to the emergence of 37 state champions.
Rose Nkemdilim Obi, a teacher at Federal Government Girls College, Onitsha, Anambra State, and Imoh Essien, a teacher at Special Education Center for Exceptional Children, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, won the 2015 and the 2016 prize respectively.
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