Teachers’ Day: Teachers deserve improved remuneration – TSB boss

Prof. Wilfred Uji, the Executive Secretary, Benue Teaching Service Board (TSB) said the 21st-century teacher deserved enhanced remuneration to deliver compact teaching in congruence with modern trends.

Uji on Friday in Makurdi regretted that teachers were poorly remunerated yet a lot was expected of them.

“The society looks at a teacher as a moral prefect, he is viewed in some quarters as a moral perfectionist, yet, he finds himself in circumstances that hinder the delivery of his expected roles. ”

He regretted that lots of gaps exist between those who delivered teaching in the early 1970’s and those currently teaching.

“In the early 70’s teachers were well remunerated, teachers declined political appointments but all that is different. The political class has made matters worse for teachers.

“They have jumbo salaries while teachers merely eke a living; this is disturbing because it is making teaching less attractive and bringing unqualified people into it just for the sake of securing employment.

“If we want to restore the teaching glory, let’s return teaching to the professionals who are trained to deliver teaching to children.

“It is important to train and re-train the teacher to deliver teaching to students; in Benue, we are using various strategies to achieve that, for instance, all teachers due for promotion are promoted, we pay all entitlements including salaries.”

He said the board was working on a scheme to provide customized laptops to teachers to facilitate teaching.

According to him, such laptops will be customized with lesson plans, e-books and all that a teacher needs to deliver teaching to his students.

He said the board was also pushing for ICT teaching in schools across the state,” the world is a global village and our teachers most embrace ICT”.

According to him, examination malpractice is a product of infrastructural decay and ill-trained teachers in schools.

“Most of our examinations are ICT driven and this has greatly eliminated malpractices.”

He called for the establishment of state education banks where all revenues accruing to schools could be channelled to block financial leakages.

Uji regretted that education was underfunded in the state and called on the government and philanthropist to support its funding to revive the sector.

He also regretted that hard work was no longer rewarded in the society and appealed to the political class to implement policies that would reward hard work and honour teachers.

The executive secretary said the teacher deserved to be celebrated amidst the mounting challenges that inhibit the conduct of his job.

“The teacher has come along way and deserves to be celebrated, he is hardworking yet the most despised in society, nobody invites him to ceremonies and gives him a place on the high table, women turn him down.

He said there had to be conscious efforts to restore the dignity of the teacher and promote his welfare to safeguard his integrity