AN EDUCATIONIST, Smith Bam, has advocated elevation of enrolment and emoluments of teachers to be at par with those of Doctors and Engineers.
Bam made the call at a One-Day Capacity Building Workshop for Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja on Friday.
He expressed displeasure over the treatment of teachers who received peanut as monthly remuneration.
“It is a ‘ponzi scheme’ for teachers to receive N100,000 and less a month.
“The teaching profession is a pitiable profession. When students don’t find role models in their teachers because of their status, then enrolment will be low.
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“We must elevate the compensation of teachers to be at par with that of a doctor and engineer because enrolment is the bye product of a sensitive society.
“If we don’t increase the teachers’ enrolment and yardsticks for being a teacher, it will aggravate exams malpractices,’’ he said.
Bam underscored the need for teachers who were custodian of knowledge to be well equipped.
He charged the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) to do more in increasing the parameters for the teaching profession.
“In Finland, you must have Master’s Degree before you can be allowed to teach.
“So, we must emulate this to make our teachers well equipped and dignified,’’ he said.
The Public Affairs Advisor, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Dr Fabian Benjamin said the country must go back to the old age where teachers were giving their respect and dues.
Benjamin said that in the past, teachers were regarded as managers of the society because the profession was booming.
He decried low enrolment into NCE awarding institutions and identified lack of incentives professionalism and good condition of service as the causes.
“In 2021, the total admission was 494,000 and out of it only 30,000 were admitted to read education programmes which represented 6.77 per cent of the admission.
“In 2022, out of the 469,000 admissions, 35,466 were admitted into COE representing 7.5 per cent.
“In 2023, out of the 472,200 admissions, 11,735 were admitted into COE representing 2.49 per cent,” he said.
He recommended that Colleges of Education (COE) must be renamed Advanced Teachers College or Institute of Teaching and Teachers Education to reshape the profession.
Also, the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of TRCN, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, commended the journalists for helping to reshape the educational space over the year.
Ajiboye, who was represented by the Council’s Head of Media, Mr Anthony Odu, promised to sustain the collaboration for the upward movement of education activities in the country.
The Chairman of ECAN, Mr Chuks Ukwuata, said that teaching profession is facing so many challenges.
He underscored the need for journalists to be acquainted with the mandates of the various agencies in the sector to help tackle some of the challenges. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was sponsored by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN). (NAN)
