By Suleiman Yakubu

Niger State Governor, Hon. Mohammed Umaru Bago, has disclosed that his administration has within the shortest time paid over four billion naira as counterpart funds for various educational programmes in the state.
The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Comrade Yakubu Garba, made this disclosure at the 2023 World Teachers Day celebration, organised by the state wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), held at Teachers House, Minna, on Thursday.
He said that the state has no outstanding funds with respect to counterpart funds for education programmes and projects in the state.
The governor also revealed that their efforts had started yielding positive results as the state had started accessing some of the funds for educational development purposes in the state.
He observed that Niger State had been left behind in terms of development in all sectors of the state, including education, because of our nonchalant attitudes towards anything owned by the government and called for general attitudinal change for the growth and development of the state.
He explained that the fact that teachers need an improved salary does not mean that they should not give their best towards teaching and learning, adding that this attitude needs to be changed to provide quality educational services.
He added that the present administration in the state is determined to move the education sector forward, but that it can only succeed if they are on the same page with all stakeholders in the sector, particularly the major actors, who are the teachers.
The governor added that they will look into the demands of the teachers with a view to taking care of them one at a time, particularly the issue of enhancing salaries for teachers.
In her address, the state commissioner for basic and secondary education, who was the Chief Guest of Honour at the occasion, Dr. Hadiza Asabe Mohammed, disclosed that the state governor had given the ministry a matching order to unravel the factors militating against effective delivery of quality education in the state, including teacher shortage and welfare.
While congratulating the teachers, pupils, students, and parents on the occasion of the 2023 World Teachers Day celebration, the Commissioner also urged the teachers to keep hope alive as the present administration, under the leadership of Governor Umar Bago, was committed to building a new Niger State.
Delivering a keynote address on the topic "The Teachers We Need for the Education We Want: The Global Imperative to Reverse Teacher Shortages," the keynote speaker, Ustaz Yabagi Alfa, observed that teachers were very important to the Nigerian educational system and nation-building.
He said teachers were the heart of the education system, saying that with good structures and educational facilities, if we don't have good teachers, it amounts to nothing, but that a competent, motivated teacher can produce a future leader even under the shade of a tree.
Ustaz Yabagi added that with the right education and the teacher we need, we will have a better education for future generations, thereby advocating for a better welfare package for teachers by improving their renumerations, training, and retraining programmes among other welfare packages.

By Suleiman Yakubu

The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger State Wing, Comrade Adamu Mohammed Akayago, has decried the painful bondages teachers in the state were being subjected to by successive administrations.
He noted that teachers, who were the torchbearers of positive transformations, were always neglected, reduced to beggars, and treated as insignificant people among other civil servants in the state public service when it came to the issue of welfare.
Speaking on the occasion of the 2023 World Teachers Day celebration, which took place at the Comrade Labaran Garba Multi-Purpose Conference Centre at the NUT Secretariat, Tungagoro, in Minna on Thursday, he described the suffering state of teachers in Niger State as painful.
According to the chairman, in November 2018, the salaries of civil servants on the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS) in Niger State were reviewed by 25 percent by the state government, denying teachers at both primary and post-primary schools the right to benefit.
"This development did not only make teachers the lowest salary earners in the state public service, but has gone a long way to destroy the age-long glory and reputation of the teaching profession, equally contributing to the mass exodus of teachers from Niger State," he stated.
He added that, in 2023, the Nigeria Governors Forum approved the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS) for teachers across the country in the ratio of 27.5 percent for professional, qualified teachers and 12.5 percent for non-professional, unqualified teachers. noting that only eight and two percent have so far been implemented for both professionals and non-professionals, respectively, in the state.
He disclosed that the union has made concerted efforts through correspondence, meetings with government officials and the executive governor, and even embarked on a strike, all with the view of persuading the state government to consider teachers in the 25 percent salary review, full implementation of the Teachers' Salary Structure (TSS), and the new minimum wage of N30,000.
"His Excellency totally agreed with us that teachers deserve a special palliative package arising from the present economic situation in the country", he said.
He then appealed to the present leadership of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago to review the salaries of teachers in the state in order to reduce their plight, considering the biting economic challenges facing teachers occasioned by the hike in the price of fuel as a result of subsidy removal.
Represented by his deputy, Comrade Yakubu Garba, Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State appreciated the role of teachers in nation-building and assured that his administration would continue to improve the well-being of teachers in Niger State.
He reiterated the stance of the administration's preparedness to access qualified and affordable education for all, as well as promoting a regime of free and compulsory primary education in the state. The 2023 theme for celebration, "The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse teacher shortage", witnessed the presentation of teachings and instructional materials by the state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr. Hadiza Asabe Mohammed.