Abike had three potential boyfriends/ suitors well known by her mother, the first is a medical student in final year, the second guy is a student engineer while the third is a school teacher with 5years experience. Along the line, Abike got pregnant and the mother got to know about it. She was compelled to tell who owns the pregnancy. The mother was shocked to death when abike told her that the pregnancy belongs to the school teacher.
"School what!!!!!!!"
"With 13,000 monthly salary!!!!"
"That wretched boy!!!!!"
"You must be stupid!!!"
"Chaiii, this teacher had charmed my daughter ooooooooo, !!!".
Mama abike yelled at abike. Abike replied "mama, why now?, I was expecting you to be happy that he is a working class compared with the rest".
"You dey craze??"
"What does a teacher have to offer?"
" I still prefer the student doctor or engineer"
"Don't you know how much they will earn when they graduate?"
"Their 6 months salary will be more than the entire 5years salary of that miserable teacher".
"We must abort this pregnancy".
point one, potential mother inlaws and the society at large looked down on teachers .

Back in university days, I actually wanted to study chemistry. But because I didn't know any oga at the top, neither do I have anybody to help me with my admission, I was given chemistry education instead of chemistry major. I was happy that at least, I was an undergraduate. But along the line, I found out that 95% of the entire student of faculty of education didn't fill education as their favourite course except for few who came in through direct entry from colleges of educations. Everyone was there by one accident or the other. Mostly because they couldn't meet up with cut-off marks of their desired courses. And offcourse, faculty of education has the lowest cutoff mark in my school.
point two, the school authority decided to ridiculed teaching courses by pushing people with low intellect into it and making its cut-off mark so ridiculous

In my 100level and 200level days, I discovered that most students are ashamed to tell people outside that they were studying education at the university. Infact, most parents didn't know that their wards are into education courses. People who studied chemistry edu would claim to study pure chemistry, people who studied accounting edu would claimed that they were accountants instead of EDUCATORS. Even during teaching practise, students will always lie that they are doing Industrial training.
point three, the education students themselves are feeling inferior while in school

After my university days before I went for NYSC, I decided to apply for a teaching job in order to occupy myself. I was shocked when private schools owners were saying they would pay me 10,000naira. I was annoyed and angry with myself. I was like "will banks, engineering company, even common pure water company pay 10,000 to degree holders?" And in this same school, each students pays 30,000naira as school fees ooooo. How do I plan a life, get married and raise children with 10,000monthly salary even if I decided to see it as a career?
point four, private schools owners are stingy and not ready to pay good salary

Ok, I cajoled the school owner and decided to negotiate better with him. I begged him to increase the pay to 20,000naira. He yelled at me "what, 20k?, I will share that amount among 5 corpers monthly and they would be willing to work hard. So why should I pay you 20k when I would share the same amount among 5 people?, see ogbeni, every 3 months, governments sends many corpers here, check the staff room, you would see like 6 corpers sitting there. So if you can't take the 10,000 monthly, you can go away. I left the school with bitterness.
point five, federal government has ridiculed teaching profession by throwing 99% of mobilised corpers to schools, even those that didn't study education as a course and offcourse, graduate applicants are treated like a shit.
I was having a gist with a lawyer friend sometimes ago and the issue of teacher and other profession came up. He told me that "onihaxy, do you know why teaching profession will forever remain in low recognition and low societal respect?, no matter how good you are as an activist, no matter how outspoken you are, you can never stand in a law court as a lawyer if you don't study law and pass out from law school. Same thing with doctors, if you don't go through medical school, you can never get the licence to practice as a doctor even if you learn the skills from the best hospital in the world. Same with engineering. Julius berger can never employ you to work for him as an engineer if you studied mass communication. But in teaching field, you would see people from various facet of life applying and getting employed as a teacher. So tell me, how do you expect such field to be seriously recognised and respected?. I was dumb-folded.
point six, teaching service is filled with people who mostly doesn't study education related courses.

I have a teacher friend who is always in the habit of grumbling always. He is getting a good pay of 30,000 from his school+various lessons job. But he would still grumbled of not satisfied. I told him point blank. "Ogbeni, why not quit this job if you know that you aren't satisfied with it". He replied " do you think I'm happy teaching?, I'm just using it to keep myself busy until I get my dream job".
point seven, teaching profession is filled with people who are frustrated because they had lost their hopes in getting their dreamed job and consoling themselves with the teaching job.
Another thing I noticed is the rate at which mushroom schools are spreading around in my area. I have seen a whole primary one to primary six using a 2 bedroom flat building, I have seen a whole jss1 to sss3 of a school using a 3bedroom flat building. Then no doubt, the teachers in such schools would remain poor till jesus come. What is wrong with the educational sector setting standards for school establishments?,
point eight, mushroom schools, another major problem of making teachers a poverty description entity.

Over to you nairalanders, what do you think is the best way to revitalise teaching profession and career to make it stand among its medical, engineering and banking sector?. Even common agricultural sector is now getting more respect than the teaching profession.

*Edited
Nice one onihaxy..you have done well with your highlighted points..

At first, I felt bad when I ws admitted to study education physics but along the line, the interest was just growing at the speed of light..


The grand cause of all these problems is the government atitude towards teaching profession..

Way out;
1. There should be an office of the tutor-general of the federation..and also one for each six geopolitical zones.

2. Teacher salary scale should be reviewed every 5years inorder to give room for improvement nd proper placement

3. Teachers should be more engaged in what they studied.. Imagine someone that study chemistry education now teaching physics nd chemistry in secondary schools..it shldnt be like that

4a. There shld be a professional exam apart from university/college of edu certificate.. This will just complement the degree certificates nd will also serve as teaching licence.. Remember that the mistakes of a teacher can affect many generations whereas that of doctor is jst for that patient life alone.
4b. Teachers Registration Council TRC's certificate should only be given after the professional exam as stated in 4a and not as exam-free as it's bin done. That certificate will serve as the licence to teach in formal institution(i.e schools at all levels)
4c. Every teacher no matter the level of teaching should have this certificate including the university lecturers. Individual with no TRC certificate shld nt be offered the teaching/lecturing jobs.
4d. Pre-requisite to this exam should be a degree certificate in education or a college of education certificate or a post-graduate diploma in education certificate

5. All teachers nd lecturers should possess at least a diploma training in education. Even lectures in engineering, medicine, pharmacy nd law should have at least PGDE certificate.
With this, education profession will not be for all tom, dickk nd Harry

6. Minisitries of Education and National Orientation Agency should deem proper orientation fit for the teenagers and the youths about the importance of education and advantages of being an educationist.

7. Education Research Institutes like NERDC and the rests should be properly funded

8. Adult literacy Education should be well encouraged




with the aforementioned points, If the need is properly done, then we will definitely get to where we are suppose to be in the following respec:
1. Mass failure in schools will be reduced to the minimum
2. There will be respect and security for teaching profession just exactly as we have it in other professions
3. The attitude of youths will be greatly changed for better
4. It will have great impact in the nation development as this will definitly improve the standard of education nd graduates our institutions will be producing

any counter-opinion is welcomed here

*****Modified
*The society looks down on teaching because its not yet a profession its still a vocation e.g. It doesn't have an applicable ethical code, no job satisfaction in most cases, no job security, no uniform qualification, differences in course content taught in higher institutions

*Teaching field is filled with people that didn't study education because most people that studied education have gone to look for greener pastures making unqualified people accept teaching job because they can't stay idle and they need to survive. Until teaching is made a profession education graduates will continue to run away and search for greener pastures

*You really can't blame mushrooms schools everybody wants to survive at the expense of others and they don't really care. There isn't enough money to fund private school and the little money that is raised from school fees is used to pay the teachers salary and satisfy the needs of the proprietor with his family. Mushrooms/private schools should be orientated on how to generate funds for their school e.g. sales of students handiwork, stage school plays, sale of textbook and stationaries, they should partner with external bodies that support education e.g. UNICEF, UNESCO, world bank
Private schools with enough land should be encouraged to expand their facilities with assistance from the government and the federal and state government should consider giving private schools some forms of grants

*Conditions of service for teachers should be reviewed.
Teaching shouldn't be an "all-comers" job
There should be continuous in-service training


*NUT should enforce strict punishment on people that don't have the licence to teach that teach like other labour unions do, because regulatory bodies are the ones that promote the growth of professions.


*Higher institutions should admit students that choose education because they want to do it not because jamb pushed them and stop using faculties of education/colleges of education as dumping ground

I'm expecting this thread to be in the front page.. Mods, pls do the needful

onihaxy: Back in university days, I actually wanted to study chemistry. But because I didn't know any oga at the top, neither do I have anybody to help me with my admission, I was given chemistry education instead of chemistry major. I was happy that at least, I was an undergraduate. But along the line, I found out that 95% of the entire student of faculty of education didn't fill education as their favourite course except for few who came in through direct entry from colleges of educations. Everyone was there by one accident or the other. Mostly because they couldn't meet up with cut-off marks of their desired courses. And offcourse, faculty of education has the lowest cutoff mark in my school.
point two, the school authority decided to ridiculed teaching courses by pushing people with low intellect into it and making its cut-off mark so ridiculous

the cut-off marks for education courses now is now relatively high when compared to other departments most especially in OAU where the cut off mark for science courses is 200(for maths, phy, chm, microbiology etc) whereas for science education courses, it ranges from 210, 217, 220(for biology edu, phy edu, chm edu etc. Nt respectively though!)

also, i was very surprised wen i see the cut-Off mark for english education which is about 270



with this new development, i think education profession's future is still very bright in this country.. Very very soon, nigerian teachers will be so much respected (both in duty nd pays)

As a teacher trainee, I have always been looking forward to a government that will take education as its top priority and look into the welfare of teachers because I can boldly say that to improve the standard of education, the teachers have a lot of things to do, so if they are not motivated, they won't be able to deliver maximally. *My humble suggestion*

Excellent article....must be on front page.

onihaxy:
point one, potential mother inlaws and the society at large looked down on teachers .

Not true...some teachers still make good matches! But point taken.

point two, the school authority decided to ridiculed teaching courses by pushing people with low intellect into it and making its cut-off mark so ridiculous

True...one of the gripes of my university lecturer dad (now retired). And it was not always like that.

Problem is.....secondary schools steer their intelligent students to the professional courses.

point three, the education students themselves are feeling inferior while in school

Sad....and should not be.

point four, private schools owners are stingy and not ready to pay good salary

Some private schools have high overhead costs....that's why things like power and water supply have to improve.

point five, federal government has ridiculed teaching profession by throwing 99% of mobilised corpers to schools, even those that didn't study education as a course and offcourse, graduate applicants are treated like a shit.

That's largely because many of the proper teachers run away from rural postings. (One of the big mistakes Jack Gowon made was to take over Mission schools.....the mission teachers who were funded from abroad and made comfy in their rural postings were repalced by GOVT teachers...who did not have the same dedication....or level of funding. So, they ran away....and NYSC to the rescue.

point six, teaching service is filled with people who mostly doesn't study education related courses.

Indeed.

I have a teacher friend who is always in the habit of grumbling always. He is getting a good pay of 30,000 from his school+various lessons job. But he would still grumbled of not satisfied. I told him point blank. "Ogbeni, why not quit this job if you know that you aren't satisfied with it". He replied " do you think I'm happy teaching?, I'm just using it to keep myself busy until I get my dream job".
point seven, teaching profession is filled with people who are frustrated because they had lost their hopes in getting their dreamed job and consoling themselves with the teaching job.

Indeed....and i could say the same about my field Medicine.Thanks to poverty....

Another thing I noticed is the rate at which mushroom schools are spreading around in my area. I have seen a whole primary one to primary six using a 2 bedroom flat building, I have seen a whole jss1 to sss3 of a school using a 3bedroom flat building. Then no doubt, the teachers in such schools would remain poor till jesus come. What is wrong with the educational sector setting standards for school establishments?,
point eight, mushroom schools, another major problem of making teachers a poverty description entity.

Sadly.,....thanks to poor education funding....and increasing population.....

Good points from kreezy and dejt4u.
More points are welcomed. Education profession should be taken serious so that it would be on same page with its counterpart.

Seun, fynestboi, olawalebabs, richiez, mods, please help us push this topic to frontpage please.

onihaxy: Good points from kreezy and dejt4u.
More points are welcomed. Education profession should be taking serious so that it would be on same page with its counterpart.

Seun, finestboi, mods, please help us push this topic to frontpage please.

seriously onihaxy, you need to send this article to newspapers for publication(vanguard, punch, tribune, the nation e.t.c.).. I want almost every nigerian to read it..
Although, i dnt knw the achievement rate of that

Great work Onihaxy....The way teachers are treated most times is saddening.D poverty level in this country has led so many into taking up teaching jobs leaving no room for d qualified ones.U don't just wake up one morning and start imparting knowledge.... the govt should do d needful before we have nothing to write home about in this country.

bad teachers bad education.

The power of a country is his youth and their education.

Teachers should be well taken care of and their salaries/allowances provided as at when due

Op,Agriculture is not ordinary...

The Only Solution To This Is If Parents Become More Concerned With Their Children's Education. International Schools Pay Very Well. I Know One In PortHarcourt That Pays Up To 120,000 As A Starting Salary. If Parents Take Education Seriously, Nobody Would Send Their Children To Petty Schools. They Don't Learn Very Well In Petty Schools And The Work Force Consists Of unqualified Persons. International Schools With Standard Facilities Employ Qualified People And Charge Higher, Yet They Pay Teachers Very Well And The Kids Learn Very Well In Such Schools. Petty Schools Should Be Eradicated. Only Then Would Teachers Get Good Take Home Pay.

Teaching will continue being frowned upon till its exclusive for people who have interest,and not gate crasher,or frustrated people.

Teaching demands aptitude,and skill,and talent .its not for every Tom,who feels that they stand in front of a board,and students.

Till its regulated,or strong unionism is achieved in controlling its activities,it will forever remain like that.

Am proud to be in the teaching world- we hold the future in the our hands.

Its all the fault of the FG

The teaching profession is a really bad career line to take in this country,I really pity the teachers of government schools, they are worse off,the only way of letting their frustration out is to beat students to coma....and other extreme measures.
forwarding this article to national dailies won't be bad too.
Every great move starts with awareness,the national dailies could help in that aspect.

Numerouuuno: The teaching profession is a really bad career line to take in this country,I really pity the teachers of government schools, they are worse the only way of letting their frustration out is to beat students to coma....and other extreme measures.
forwarding this article to national dailies won't be bad too.
Every great move starts with awareness,the national dailies could help in that aspect.

at the bolded

Great points Onihaxy! My mom has a school, that has the nursery, primary and secondary section. Only the nursery and primary is approved and i have been begging her to conclude the approval of the secondary section. She's not too moved because little or no real pressure from the government. All the government is interested in is collecting different fees, dues and taxes. So many schools in the small town where i live but very few of them are approved and have every basic necessity to enable pupils or students learn well. Now, its not that these schools can't provide the necessary things but they don't see the need since no external pressure.
About the issue of private schools being stingy, you maybe right, but its same with other sectors. The difference is that these other companies generate higher revenue so can afford to pay more. Not an excuse tho. There are other expenses school owners take care of, like fuel,water, tax etc.
In summary, only the government can change the face of education in this country. They need to make it tough for private school owners. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry should be able to start up a school when he feels like. Inspection every month, but we all know how it'll end up in this present Nigeria.. Money and food exchanging hands..

dejt4u: *Edited
Nice one onihaxy..you have done well with your highlighted points..

At first, I felt bad when I ws admitted to study education physics but along the line, the interest was just growing at the speed of light..


The grand cause of all these problems is the government atitude towards teaching profession..

Way out;
1. There should be an office of the tutor-general of the federation..and also one for each six geopolitical zones.

2. Teacher salary scale should be reviewed every 5years inorder to give room for improvement nd proper placement

3. Teachers should be more engaged in what they studied.. Imagine someone that study chemistry education now teaching physics nd chemistry in secondary schools..it shldnt be like that

4a. There shld be a professional exam apart from university/college of edu certificate.. This will just complement the degree certificates nd will also serve as teaching licence.. Remember that the mistakes of a teacher can affect many generations whereas that of doctor is jst for that patient life alone.
4b. Teachers Registration Council TRC's certificate should only be given after the professional exam as stated in 4a and not as exam-free as it's bin done. That certificate will serve as the licence to teach in formal institution(i.e schools at all levels)
4c. Every teacher no matter the level of teaching should have this certificate including the university lecturers. Individual with no TRC certificate shld nt be offered the teaching/lecturing jobs.
4d. Pre-requisite to this exam should be a degree certificate in education or a college of education certificate or a post-graduate diploma in education certificate

5. All teachers nd lecturers should possess at least a diploma training in education. Even lectures in engineering, medicine, pharmacy nd law should have at least PGDE certificate.
With this, education profession will not be for all tom, dickk nd Harry

6. Minisitries of Education and National Orientation Agency should deem proper orientation fit for the teenagers and the youths about the importance of education and advantages of being an educationist.

7. Education Research Institutes like NERDC and the rests should be properly funded

8. Adult literacy Education should be well encouraged




with the aforementioned points, If the need is properly done, then we will definitely get to where we are suppose to be in the following respec:
1. Mass failure in schools will be reduced to the minimum
2. There will be respect and security for teaching profession just exactly as we have it in other professions
3. The attitude of youths will be greatly changed for better
4. It will have great impact in the nation development as this will definitly improve the standard of education nd graduates our institutions will be producing

any counter-opinion is welcomed here

Hey bro, nice points you have up there. My own contributions coming soon. When are we having the next mathematics competition?

I have a first hand experience with respect to teaching and here are some of my observations about why teachers are not properly treated;


1) Some teachers suffer from inferiority complex: I believe even if you do not want to do something and you find yourself there by accident or whatsoever, the best thing to do is to take it seriously and not feel bad about what you do while envying those in other professions.




2) Most teachers do not dress well: There is a popular saying that says "the way you dress is the way you will be addressed". The society tends to look down on teachers in this regard. Some male teachers wear over-sized shirts and pants , tuck in and then put on a sandal. How can you put on a sandal on a tucked in shirt? The females do not dress too well too. You will see a bulk of the females with over-due hairstyles, rumbled on the head or just packed anyhow and all.




3)Even though most teachers are educationists, they are not sophisticated in reasoning and behaviour. They don't queue when they are supposed to and like to rush to get things. I was at an event at Alausa and you need to see the way a lot of them were rushing to pick up their meal packs after the seminar, the lines were scattered as if the food was going to finish. I felt so ashamed. Even in speaking, they do not show sophistication, vernacular is the order of the day, you can hardly hear them communicate in English( official language) during work hours except in classes .




4) As for the private schools(not all though) ,most of them are not serious. They usually engage in examination malpractice during external examinations because to them, the main aim of parents that register kids in their schools is to make O levels. They see no reason why they should pay a teacher heavily when they already have a shortcut. So, rather than pay the teacher for the knowledge being dished out, they are paying just for the position of the subject being occupied so that there will be teachers for all the subjects. WAEC and other examination bodies have failed woefully in clamping down examination malpractices as well.

If there are no examination malpractices and other shortcuts, the teachers in these schools will be well paid as the students success will be so dependent on how they teach and the efforts they put in.





5) Government Plays Politics With Education

This is the saddest of all the points, what is termed "free education" is not a good type of education. The kind of education we give our kids is highly substandard, it can best be described as "let my people go education" ,the only standard thing about it is the knowledge of the teachers, there is no how a qualitative education can be totally free considering the population but we just keep on deceiving ourselves.

It is not too bad if public school kids pay 3,000 naira per term, there is power in numbers and on the average, each government school will generate at least 10million naira per annum. With this, government can effectively fund schools and pay the teachers well but the Government dare not do this because, opposing parties will use that against it during electioneering . Government also spends hundreds of millions in registering students for WAEC. All the students took the exams in my school last time but only 5 of them registered for NECO because it was not free. A bulk of the parents are also so irresponsible, they just give birth and pour their kids on the government's neck from primary school to secondary school, even if you ask them to pay 1,000 per term(a term is 3 months), some won't still pay it. So, how will such parents respect teachers? Some do not even sew uniforms for their kids when the one they have is worn out, some do not buy sandals and so on How can they appreciate education and the teachers when it is free.


As a result of this, the students and the teachers are liabilities to the government. The school doesn't generate any fund for the government, so, how can the teachers be well renumerated? Impossible! The staffrooms are not condusive enough, no facilities/ gadgets in most, poor electricity supply and so on. Even if you do not like your job but the work environment is conducive, you will get to settle well with time.
As it stands now, until free education is cancelled, teachers will never be paid well.

Although , teaching is a noble profession, the kind of society we live in looks down on people with a trashy amount as salary. From what I have seen,most teachers save their lives out before they can achieve any meaningful thing in life and they are always paying debts they have to refund through corporatives and all. They say teachers are now using cars and all, you can hardly find a tear rubber car in any of the schools, most of the cars are rickety ones bought with a lot of savings.


Finally, with respect to finances, teaching pays on the long run if you are ready to spend the rest of your life there but as a starter, in the first ten years+, your salary will just be sufficient to eat and do some minor things with no majour savings that can take care of big emergencies. God bless teachers!

hmm

naturalwaves:
Hey bro, nice points you have up there. My own contributions coming soon. When are we having the next mathematics competition?

yea bro! I'l PM benbuk nd richie for that.. Tnx

.... Post has achieved it's aim

So what must be done

1.Standards for people wanting to teach must be raised. JAMB cut off, WAEC , etc....raised

2.CPD....every week.

3.Salaries must be raised

Nice points there @Op.

Our govt is not really concerned about the education sector that's why it's like that. Most of the teachers in my then sec school are always complaining and the moment you start complaining of your job not good enough, it will surely affect your output. This is the reason they're not ready to go on a long term research since they are not motivated to do so. In order to supplement their salaries, they started introducing some unnecessary levies like pta, counterparts, dev etc. Most of these schools don't even have enough techers to handle these subjects and the ones available are not even good at what they are taking hence the poor performance of students in external exams.

The way forward:
They already have a union, let them make use of it, go on strike and request for a total overhaul of the education sector. The total percentage of budget being allocated to education is too small. Let them join hands NUT, ASUU, COESU, ASUP And others.

So true! The yeye government has turned the educational sector as a dumping poo! Poor infrastructure et ǻƪƪ ! Schools now see education faculties as a consolation avenue for those in dire need of admission! Its just so disheartening to see our youths in such a sorry state, just like ♈όϋ stated, no Educational students will boldly tell ♈όϋ what s/he is studying! I get to wonder why until I realised the real problem!
....we should do something fast before this thing runs out of hand!

Nice topic

Lower secondary school teachers with the minimum education requirements in SOUTH KOREA can expect a starting yearly salary of $30401 (N5016165; about N418,000 per month) and also $84529 (N13947285; N1.1m per month) by the end of their career-highest GL(grade level).

http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/south-korea-overview/south-korea-teacher-and-principal-quality/

Moderators pls move this topic to front page

Wen i was in skul.....

Teeacher ;what d u wana b in future

me : teacher

teacher : u be mumu

I love your post, OP.

A lot of things have to change though - from raising awareness to help lessen the stereotypes Nigerians have about Teachers (Nigerians themselves have to be open-minded), to making sure those going into the profession are adequately trained and qualified, to compensating them fairly, etc. This is one of those issues requiring a holistic approach.

May God bless all our teachers past and present.
and please when we their students become successful,we should try and visit our old schools.
its not all about money