Teachers are bound to leave when we consider how the government treats them. There is no doubt about that. Nigeria is one of the African countries paying teachers the poorest remuneration. As a result, many fresh brains are unwilling to join the train, while those already in the profession are desperately looking for means of escape. I was speaking with a friend today, who told me that the number of Physics teachers in the system is gradually dwindling. Those who actually studied Physics don’t want to remain. Some of them are travelling out.
There is no nation that can grow above the quality of its education, and no educational goals can be achieved without quality teachers. Teachers deserve to be adequately remunerated, planned for, and given a sense of security. A situation where state and federal governments struggle to pay gratuity ten to fifteen years after retirement is not just insensitive but criminal, a situation where the contributive pension schemes are tampered with, and a lot of yearly incentives are delayed or denied. It has forced those who should be resting to continue labouring.
The critical aspects of schooling are either missing or falling apart. A lot of schools don’t have counsellors. If not a hundred per cent, I guarantee you that that section is 95 per cent dead. There were days the counsellors were always ready, always there for you, asking you to come for interactive sessions and all that. But that aspect is practically dead. Will it bother you if I tell you that recently I had an encounter with a group of students and I asked them why they were going to the Humanities Department? The first answer that one of them gave was what the other six mentioned. He said he wanted to become an artist, to draw. Apparently, he happened to be the only one who had a background of why he wanted that department. Others simply copied what he said. They had not thought of it. They just felt, let me go to that department jare. There is no orientation, no counselling.
There are a number of things I don’t regret. But sometimes you think, after all this, after all this commitment, is this what you are getting? One is bound to feel, ohh, maybe I should have dissipated this energy on something else. But, well, certain things give you joy beyond money. I have seen instances. So, it’s okay. We’ve paid our dues. Now, it’s to open up our brains to make sure that when this energy starts failing and the strength is no longer there, there is something to fall back on. Today, I’ve been to two tutorial lessons. It’s because the energy is still there.
Sometimes, when I see those who are older than me, those who were even practically my teachers, still struggling with us when we want to mark external examination scripts, I don’t feel too happy. Don’t tell me it’s because of experience. Don’t tell me, ‘I don’t want to just stay at home.’ I don’t want that excuse. If you’re okay in the real sense of it, you wouldn’t bother. The day I saw one of my students come to mark, the reality dawned that we have also aged. So, imagine, while lining up to collect papers, we are pushing ourselves and struggling with our students. People give a lot of excuses for why they do it. Some will say for experience. Forget experience, nah money you need. It’s unavoidable when those who have worked for years are denied their rights.
It is unfortunate that in Nigeria, what teachers are paid is not in any way in tandem with the hours they give. That’s just the honest truth. For example, in Ogun state, teachers are not earning the current minimum wage. When the federal government removed the subsidy and said they would increase the minimum wage, before they did all the paperwork, the president promised the payment of ₦35,000 palliative at the federal level. I think Lagos state complied. Ibadan, I think, was paying ₦25,000. But teachers in Ogun state received ₦10,000. So, the government of Ogun paid ₦10,000 for nine months, then stopped. Now, do you know that in the Federal Government, right now they are getting arrears of that ₦35,000 and they have effected the minimum wage. What reason does a government have for adding ₦42,000 or thereabout across board for civil servants while the workers patronise the same markets with others earning the minimum wage?
Teachers are resorting to extra laborious tasks to make ends meet. It is as bad as taking tutorial classes for a paltry sum of ₦1,200 per hour. This is what many use to augment the poor remuneration.
Imagine one spending approximately ₦60,000 monthly on transportation out of the net payment of ₦162,000. What of feeding, healthcare, marital responsibilities? And you still have to pay back debts, whether shark or crocodile loans. At the end of the day, what I receive monthly is ₦80-something. Which means, practically, that the salary of teachers in Nigeria, especially in Ogun state, cannot sustain the workers. Imagine the daughter of … a colleague asking her father, “Why don’t you have money?” That’s a very big question. Why won’t you have money? Even before she asked, you would have been going through silent torture, worrying about what your family would eat.
We are thanking God. We are thanking God. We are thanking God. We will surely get there.
A lot of brains have left the profession for countries that value their expertise. People speak highly of Oman. The pay is good and the hospitality is higher. They take lots of teachers. Unfortunately, there is a religious bias. A friend over there told me that his apartment was flooded because of an overflowing tap. If you know how much they gave him as compensation, and they still apologised. They told him sorry. Does the government know whether you exist here in Nigeria?
As narrated by: ROTIMI* (IJEBU-ODE, NIGERIA)
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