Teachers’ Welfare Key To Quality Education In Nigeria, Says Buhari

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that priority needs to be given to the welfare and training of teachers for the education sector to be renewed with focus on teaching valuable lessons for the attainment of integrity.

This, according to him, is because teachers are the ones who directly create the enabling environment for learning.

Buhari also congratulated the winner of the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing, Lesley Nneka Arimah yesterday in Abuja.

“President Buhari felicitates with the writer for the literary masterpiece, “Skinned’’, that won the award, commending her for the depth of insight and skillfulness in bringing up the issue of women inclusiveness, which continues to occupy the minds of leaders across the world, especially in Africa,” according to a statement by his Sepecial Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

He made the remarks while receiving the delegation from the Arewa House Centre for Historical Documentation and Research at the State House. He also added that the quality of training, welfare and happiness of teachers directly impacts on the quality of education that children and adults get in schools, urging more focus on research on impact of teachers.

In a statement released by the president’s spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, he spoke against the backdrop of a proposal by the Arewa House Centre for Historical Documentation and Research to start an annual “Buhari Integrity Lecture Series.”

“If it has to do with integrity, we must go back to history and try to assess the contribution of teachers to education, where teachers treated every child as their own in instilling discipline and sharing of knowledge.

“I have been lucky to be in boarding school for nine years, three years in primary school and six years in secondary school before I joined the military. And if we are talking of good education, it has to start with the teaching in schools, where children grow and the environment of learning.”

He noted that, the president said education cut across the three tiers of government. He added that it is important to consider who pays the teachers at every level and if the teachers get adequately compensated to provide quality education.

“We must make education and health a priority relative to the resources available,’’ he added.

According to the president, the challenge of repositioning the educational sector and cultivating strong moral values in children has gone beyond the northern part of the country, and should be pursued holistically at a national level.

“Your nomenclature is Arewa, but the problem of education is a national issue.’’