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Nigeria: Teachers' Strike'll Soon Be Over - FG
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This Day (Lagos)
8 July 2008
Posted to the web 9 July 2008
Onwuka Nzeshi
Abuja
The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Jerry Agada, has said that the on-going strike by primary and secondary school teachers will soon be over as efforts are on to get the Nigeria Union of Teachers and other stakeholders in the sector to resolve the issues at stake.
Agada disclosed this at the 2008 Speech and Prize Giving Day ceremonies of the Federal Government Academy, Suleja, Niger State.
Agada said that though the Federal Government was conscious of the need to pay teachers what is due to them, it will be unconstitutional for it to direct States and Local Governments on what salaries to pay teachers in their schools.
He reminded teachers that education constitutionally falls under the concurrent list, a situation that makes it difficult for the Federal Government to take all the decisions in the sector.
He urged teachers to return to the classroom in the interest of their pupils who are the future generation of the country.
On the demand by teachers to have their reward here on earth rather than in heaven, Agada explained that the long existing adage that "teacher's reward is in heaven" was not an attempt to deny teachers in the country their legitimate wages but another way of saying that the contributions of the teacher to national development was unquantifiable and no government can fully reward the teacher.
"It is a euphemism which simply means that the teacher's work is so much, the teacher is doing a lot that can neither be fully appreciated or remunerated monetarily."
"In fact in those days when some of us were young, if you came to my village, the greatest person apart from the village head is the teacher. The village headmaster and his teachers were so important that our people felt that given the kind of job they were doing there is no amount of money you can pay them in this world that can sufficiently reward them."
"Therefore when we say the teachers' reward is in heaven, we mean the full gratitude the society can pay to the teacher is in heaven not that their salaries should be paid in heaven," Agada said.
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He urged teachers not to be distracted from the cause of laying good foundations for the young people in terms of character and learning. Agada also enjoined students to write articles in the scchool magazine and also instituted a prize for Literature at the Federal Government Academy Suleja.
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