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The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Oyo state, Comrade Raji Oladimeji, has declared that teachers in the state are having the best of time under Governor Seyi Makinde, noting the governor’s commitment to funding education and improving teachers’ welfare is excellent.
Comrade Oladimeji though observed that Governor Makinde adminstration needed to upend its effort in renovating infrastructure in schools.
The NUT boss made these declarations recently while speaking with newsmen in Ogbomoso at the celebration of retirement cum 60th birthday of Comrade Dayo Ajala, Oyo state representative of the NUT at the national level and who is principal of Owode Community Grammar School.
Responding to a question on what should be done to revive the fallen standard of education, he said inter alia, “Teachers in Oyo state are happy, l want to tell you that.” He continued, “Some of us especially in primary schools are now on grade level 16, and we hope to reach grade level 17 too. And in secondary schools our colleagues now reach grade level 17. This used to be a taboo, that is teachers in primary schools couldn’t go beyond grade level 14, and in secondary schools, grade level 16.”
“We appreciate His Excellency, we used to be at the receiving end but now our colleagues reach the position of Permanent Secretary, a teacher is TESCOM chairman, so, all these serve as impetus for teachers to put in more efforts.”
Raji meanwhile stressed that “all hands must be on the deck, doing everything that is necessary to make sure we revive education. It must not be restricted to government alone, all of us have a role to play.”
He submitted parents had a huge role to play too like in purchase of textbooks for their children and wards just as he urged government to make schools safe, while recalling various incidents of headers’ attacks in schools in the state.
He emphasized the state nonetheless is getting it better in ICT (Information and Communication Technology. “We are getting it better in ICT, we had 22, 000 teachers given IPAD and who underwent training, we now have less than 10, 000 teachers that have not been taken care of. This will promote e-teaching and improve teaching and learning in our schools generally.
He urged the adminstration to prioritise renovation of schools across the state. He noted, “We sat down together and identified that government needs to put in more efforts in renovating some of our schools. Apart from interventions that Oyo state has gotten through BESDA and some others, we still have to do more in the area of renovation, providing furniture etc.”
On the low number of students transiting to higher institutions after secondary schools, Comrade Oladimeji asserted it was a global problem and not peculiar to Oyo state.
He identified some of the factors responsible for this as shortage of teachers, curriculum structure, inadequate funding and parents’ unwillingness to support their children’s educational pursuit.
But he had words of commendation for Governor Makinde. “But in Oyo state, the problem of shortage of teachers has been addressed with the recruitment of thousands of teachers in the state.”
He also hailed the welfare package for teachers in Oyo state, and on minimum wage review, promised by the governor during the agitation for minimum wage increase by the labour last year, he said, “The presence of peace is not the absence of agitation, we will continue to struggle. But the minimum wage is an NLC issue.”
The union leader assured the interest of teachers would continually be protected citing the newly introduced advancement and promotion exam for teachers as an instance.
“We won’t stop, something happened of recent when they said our teachers would also need to sit for examinations, we said we need not run away from such, because we have the path opened up for us to reach the pinnacle and our colleagues in the core civil service are writing such exams to get to the top, why not us? Something that will make us walk tall eventually.”
Expressing confidence the next adminstration that would take over in 2027 would sustain Makinde’s policy of payment of salaries on the 24th or 25th of every month he submitted however that “NUT is an affiliate of NLC and would follow the path charted by NLC on that.”
This is as he in a message to teachers commended their ”perseverance, dedication, commitment, and everything we need to appreciate them for.”
Comrade Oladimeji described the celebrant, Comrade Ajala as “a good ambassador of not only of Ogbomoso but of NUT at the national level,” saying despite his tight schedule he had to make time to attend the programme.
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