International Teachers Day, also known as World Teachers Day, is an internationally recognized holiday held annually on 5 October in most countries of the world, including Teachers Day in Nigeria, the giant of Africa. The day began in 1994 to commemorate the implementation of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation dealing with the Status of Teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that answers the status and situations of teachers around the world.
According to Colin Power (2014) in his book The Power of Education: Education for All, Development, Globalisation and UNESCO, he outlines standards relating to education such as personnel policy, recruitment, and initial training as well as the continued education of teachers, their employment, and working conditions. World Teachers Day aims to focus on “appreciating, assessing and improving the educators of the world” and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching.
International Teachers Day in Nigeria
The question for Nigerians is, what is Nigeria doing to improve the standard of teachers?
While there are efforts on the ground to improve the standard of living of present day teachers, the government is also encouraging and inspiring the future teachers with a number of opportunities to attract the best minds into the teaching experience. In a piece written by Clement Idoko where he highlighted some of the opportunities provided as part of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s efforts to commemorate the International Teachers Day in Nigeria for the year 2021.
The government of Nigeria has approved the sum of N75,000 as a stipend per semester for aspiring teachers, that is students undergoing degree programs in Education in public universities in Nigeria. It should be noted that education programs in Nigeria are degrees people undertake to become automatic teachers.
Also, the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) students will get N50,000 as a stipend per semester as part of the deliberate effort of the government to attract the best brains into the teaching profession as promised by President Muhammadu Buhari last year.
The statement of these lofty opportunities was made public by the minister of Education, Malam Adamu on Tuesday, at the World Teacher’s Day celebration held at Eagle Square, Abuja. The minister in his speech said: “Undergraduate students of B.Ed / B.A. Ed/ BSc. Ed in Public institutions are to receive stipends of N75,000.00 per semester while NCE students will get N50,000.00 as stipends per semester. Also, the federal Government will find the modality through which respective states’ governments could provide automatic employment for NCE.
How to Help on International Teachers Day
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) cites that everyone can help by celebrating the profession, by generating awareness about teacher issues, and by ensuring that teacher respect is part of the natural order of things.
Happy International Teachers Day!
