Victor Ahiuma-Young
10 July 2008
Lagos — A VICE President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu has called on the Governors' Forum under the leadership of Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State to intervene in the lingering teachers' strike to force government to implement the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS), warning that the education of future leaders of the nation should not be subjected to mere academic politics.
Aremu who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), in a chat with Vanguard, argued that any Federation rests on minimum standards on critical indispensable issues like education, health, labour pay and so on.
According to Comrade Aremu: "We task the Governors' Forum to urgently intervene and return the Federal government and teachers to the path of dialogue and conflict resolution.
"We should not subject critical issue of education to the unhelpful academic politics of the federation. Any Federation rests on minimum standards on critical indispensable issues like education, health, labour pay etc.
"Teachers Salary Structure being demanded by NUT is part of the necessary minimum standard to reinvent education sector.
Happily many state governors have in their own right improved on teachers' pay if they will retain skilled hands in fast declining education sector as part of the great task of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The governors are hereby urged to fill the gap created by unnecessary dialogue breakdown between the federal government and the NUT.
If we combine the recent scandalous national power melt down, Niger Delta chaos, industry collapse, and mass unemployment with complete school shut down, we are inadvertently proving the acid test of our adversaries that Nigeria is a failed state. We are optimistic that Nigeria can and must be a success state. In any case Nigeria was once a success state.
That was when teachers were well motivated; school enrolment was progressively on the increase, when school curriculum met the global standard. The President and the governors have the historic responsibility to return Nigeria back to the path of development to be driven by educated work force. Nigeria leaders must make case for education as leaders of successful nations are doing."
" President Yar'Adua and indeed all governors of the Federation should make similar declaration with expressed passion for education, education and education. Nigeria prides itself with abundant population. But Labour and human resources will not create the envisaged wealth unless we have investment in education.
Education of huge human resources is the key to the dramatic transformation of India and China in recent times. No sector can work without well informed citizenry through education and well motivated teachers that drive it.
President Yar'Adua commendably reviewed the notorious "Adopt-A-Public School" policy announced by former Minister of Education in President Obasanjo's administration, Oby Ezekwesili. Adopt-a-School policy was an official acceptance of the fact that we have treated education as an abandoned baby that should be adopted by some Samaritans.
Nigeria cannot be part of 20 leading world's economies with that kind of beg-thy neighbour orientation to education. Adopt-A-Public School was an official legitimisation of official abandonment of public schools which were the platform for mass education during the developmentalist Nigeria of 50s, 60s and 70s.
But as good as this policy review is, it must be replaced with a Re-invent-All-public-Schools policy that must include good pay for the teachers."
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