Teachers, learners are victims of insecurity – NUT

The National President of Nigerian Union of Teachers, Comrade Audu Titus Amba, has said the school system in Nigeria has over the years suffered severe setbacks due to security and safety challenges.

Speaking at the 2024 World Teachers Day celebration in Abuja, Amba called on Federal and State governments to put in place adequate measures to ensure safety and protection of lives and properties.

“This is one key way the nation can assure free and unhindered access to education as a fundamental right of all children and the youth in our nation,” he said at the programme which has as its the theme, ‘Valuing teachers’ voices: towards a new social contract for education’.

“Teachers, learners and other education support workers have been victims of attacks by terrorists, kidnappings by bandits, School-Related Gender-Based Violence, as well as natural disasters such as pandemics and floods. These security challenges have negatively affected teaching and learning in our school system.”

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Amba also urged the federal and state governments to invest adequately in education to address all challenges confronting the sector.

He said budgetary allocations to the sector has over the years have remained a far cry from the internationally recommended benchmarks of at least six per cent of GDP and /or at least 20 per cent of the National budget.

He said teacher shortage is a major challenge confronting education system, adding that UBEC (2024) survey indicated that there is a shortage of 194,876 teachers in public primary schools across the country.

“Reports from the field revealed an alarming man- power crisis where some primary schools in the country are barely manned by one or two teachers, leaving the pupils to suffer learning poverty with a bleak future ahead,” he said.

He urged both national and sub- national governments to heed to the global call of funding for well-qualified and well-supported teachers for quality and sustainability of education systems, to ensure that every learner has access to a professionally trained, qualified and well- supported teacher.