President Buhari has approved a special salary scale and new retirement age for teachers across the country.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced the approval for the special salary scale at a ceremony in Abuja to mark World Teachers Day. He also announced that President Buhari has granted approval for an increase in the number of service years for the teachers from 35 to 40.
President Buhari in his speech read by the Minister, said “Government notes the emergency situation in our educational system with particular reference to the dearth of qualified and dedicated teachers to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at all levels of our educational system. To address these challenge and set our country on the path of industrialisation where our educational system will produce the needed skills and manpower, I have approved the following: The reintroduction of bursary award to education students in Universities and College of Education with the assurance of automatic employment upon graduation, payment of stipends to Bachelor of Education students as well as granting them automatic employment after graduation is now a government policy. The Tertiary Education Fund will now fund teaching practice in Universities and Colleges of Education, special salary scale for teachers in basic and secondary schools including provisions for rural posting allowance, science teachers allowance and peculiar allowance. Special teacher pension scheme to enable the teaching profession to retain its experienced talent as well as extend teachers retirement age to 65 years and teachers service years to 40, create a career path policy for the teaching profession in Nigeria and, teachers conversion programme and ICT training to mitigate the current dearth of qualified teachers in the school system.”