NUT President: Nigeria’s education is in crisis

The National President of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Audi Amba, has said the education system in Nigeria is in a crisis.

Amba, who decried the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), said the basic and secondary education sub-sectors are faced with serious challenges.

The NUT President said this while speaking at the 2022 World Teachers Day in Abuja on Wednesday.

Amba, however, urged the Federal Government to increase the budgetary allocation to education and fast-track the implementation of the approved incentives by President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2021 World Teachers Day to ensure teachers were adequately motivated to carry out their professional duties with dignity and satisfaction.

He said: “The education system in Nigeria is in crisis. At the tertiary level, students of public Universities have been out of school for about seven months due to the protracted industrial dispute between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

“The basic and secondary education sub-sectors are faced with serious challenges. These include non-implementation of the N30,000.00 minimum wage for teachers in some states, shortage of teachers, poor infrastructure, lack of instructional materials, insecurity in schools, inadequate funding, and poor conditions of service in general. It is regrettable that this deplorable state of Education and poor working conditions of teachers adversely affect education service delivery, especially in the public sector.

“Let me use this occasion to reiterate our call on governments at both national and sub-national levels to place high premium on education and accord teachers their pride of place in society.

“In this regard, we must brace up as a nation to invest adequately in education by raising the budgetary allocations to Education in line with the internationally recommended benchmarks of at least 4% to 6% of GDP and/or 15% to 20% of public expenditure,” the NUT President stated.

The Star