Leadnaija
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has urged President Bola Tinubu to prioritise teacher’s values and welfare to make the profession more attractive for younger generation.
The National President of NUT, Comrade Audu Amba, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He urged the government to make teacher a model and recognise the teaching profession as a pillar of societal advancement.
Amba frowned at the current situation where teaching is made a “Hobson’s choice” among admission and job seekers – an option not because it’s your preferred choice, but because it’s the only option available after others have been filled.
He said deliberate policies should be made to place teacher’s seat in frontal row.
Amba said many students had little or no passion for the teaching profession and this was most demonstrated when a candidate scores low marks in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
According to him, when a candidate scores below the cut-off marks of first and second choice courses, he or she is often compelled to study education in order not to loose admission for the year.
“Today in our secondary schools everybody is scrambling to get 300 and above in the UTME so that he or she can read medicine.
“The university system made it clear that before you read medicine, you must score 300 marks and above. Why is such rules not applicable to Education?
“Those students that want to read Medicine to become Doctor, who taught and will still teach them, is it not the teacher?,” he retorted.
According to him, if the teacher is not sound, how could he or she impact the needed knowledge and training the child needs to study medicine?
