A former Secretary to the Government of Oyo State, Chief Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli on Monday commended teachers in Nigeria, especially in Oyo State for their relentless efforts in imparting knowledge and ensuring discipline is instilled in their pupils and students.
Alli, a lawyer and senior chief in Ibadan, said teachers deserve better welfare packages for the services they are rendering to humanity because teachers turnout engineers, filmmakers, journalists,.writers, astronauts, architects, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs and other professionals which he said “without teachers, the world would not have great leaders and heroes who make our planet a better place for all.”
In a statement he personally signed on Monday, Alli urged government at all levels to use this year Teacher’s day to ruminate on better ways to repackage their welfare.
According to Alli, Nigeria is among the countries where teachers are not respected for their sacrificial role of burning light candles while preparing lesson notes to impart knowledge on others to attain success.
The 2019 candidate of the ZLP in Oyo state said despite the negative effects of the covid 19 pandemic in the country, teachers still risk their lives to ensure the world continues to grow.
He said: “I salute all the teachers across the country, especially in my primary constituency, Oyo State. I commend them and I appreciate them for their relentless efforts.
“I therefore urge government at all levels to use this special occassion to look at ways in ensuring they are given better treatments. It is painful that Nigeria remains one of the countries where we don’t appreciate teachers because of their poor remuneration.”
The former Chief of Staff to a former governor of the state further said there is no contention about the positive contributions of teachers to human capital development globally, therefore, government at all levels should drop politicking and come up with policies that will set the country as academic trailblazer in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
Alli further said: “we must put a stop to the recent findings which indicated that over 60 per cent of teachers do not have job satisfaction and are psychologically discouraged due to low take home pay, deprived welfare packages and disregard for their salient contributions to nation building.”
