The wind of subsidy removal from the premium motor spirit in terms of currency devaluation, inflation, hike in the prices of commodities and food stuff, transportation costs and un-affordability of social and household needs is like a desert storm that spares no one, the rich and the poor. But by the inflexibility, monthly regimentation and fiscal restraints of their salaries, teachers seem to be the worst hit in the financial crunch that trails the subsidy removal.
Teachers in Nigeria have common historical experience in wage valuations and economic empowerment which are relatively poor compared to other professions in the middle class cadre which has given birth to their low class status in today’s society. The difference today is clear and distinct from the golden era when teachers were bread winners of extended families and guardians of many to schools and universities.
The work and wage history of Nigerian teachers is, therefore, the history of the growth of capitalism, exploitation, and slavery while deregulation and the removal of oil subsidy is the highest form of capitalism.
The historic cross road is worse for teachers save that the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA-government of Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR is teacher-friendly.
The Governor, during a recent delegates conference of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Anambra State wing, emphasized that “the nation is directionless without the services of teachers and stated that one can predict the future of any nation when a cursory look is taken at the quality of teachers and teaching in that society. He explained that this is why his government has been prioritizing education, starting with the recruitment of five thousand teachers within the first nine months of coming to office.
He maintained that teaching is a profession that should be dignified, as such teachers should not be recruited on the basis of who knows who, but on merit, and that when the teacher stop learning, the society stops growing.
To show that action speaks louder than voice, he began implementing different reforms to better the welfare of teachers including the reconsideration in teachers’ minimum wage, retirement age and streamlining of miscellaneous payments that students are pressured to pay, with a major focus on public schools. The recent announcement that pupils and students in public nursery, primary and junior secondary school will enjoy free education and that those in senior secondary schools will not pay any levies or fees that are cumulatively above five thousand naira every term will not only positively affect teachers but as well the larger Anambra population.
Beyond the classroom, other palliatives introduced by the Governor will also impact positively in the take home package of our teachers. Fir instance, they are benefitting from ten percent increase in salaries of all public servants which began in January, 2023 and the N12,000 cash award which will begin from this month.
Their colleagues who are retiring from service will benefit from the clearing of the four-year backlog in payment of gratuities and pension arrears of our pensioners. Also they will benefit from the distribution of rice to over 300,000 households across the 326 wards in Anambra. Indirectly, they will also benefit from the exemption of vulnerable and small business from all forms of taxation/levies. The twenty percent subsidy introduced for transporters in their IGR payment is also expected to impact positive on the amount these teachers spend in getting to their different schools.
These responses are practically and comprehensively inclusive, horizontal and vertical in the sense that all economic classes – teachers included – are affected by the hyper inflation.
As the social and financial plague is systemic so also would be the social and economic responses. Within the context of the post-subsidy regime, both visual and physical modes of teaching should be employed to maximize space and time in the transmission and exchange of knowledge in the schools.
The austere economic condition is a stimulant for novelties and critical pedagogy, an educational model that would build critical consciousness that would enable people to create changes in their lives, to cope with adversity, technological trends and global turn of events.
Written by PROF. MADUBUCHI DUKOR/
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