The Lagos State Government has promised to address the concerns of teachers in the state, including the shortage of teachers in primary and secondary schools.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu made the promise in a message to this year’s celebration of World Teachers’ Day in Ikeja.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, praised the contribution of teachers to the growth and development of the society and said that the administration would address the shortage of teachers.
Dr Hamzat said the notion that the quality of education had gone down was not entirely correct as the same foreign countries who made the allegation had been recruiting Nigerian teachers and other professionals.
Delivering a lecture on the theme of the celebration, which is “The Teachers We Need for the Education We Want: The Global Imperative to Reverse the Teacher Shortage,” an Associate Professor of Education from the University of Lagos, Oyekunle Oyelami said today’s teachers needed to be multi-literate, life-long learners, creative problem solvers and empathetic to be able to impact knowledge in their students.
The Chairman of the Lagos State Wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Comrade Akintoye Hassan, called on the state government to domesticate the policy to increase the retirement age of teachers from sixty to sixty-five and to recruit more hands at the basic education level.
Comrade Hassan said in a world defined by innovation, connectivity and boundless opportunities, and there was a need to properly equip teachers, especially at the basic and secondary education levels.
The World Teachers’ Day celebration was attended by stakeholders, including a former Commissioner of Education in the State, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, and the current Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Jamiu Tolani Alli-Balogun, with a performance by some students eulogizing the role of teachers in society.