World Teachers Day: WYSN felicitates with NUT, advocates for improved welfare packages for teachers 

Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN) has felicitated with the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) on the occasion of the World Teachers Day. 

The network in a statement made available to CAPITAL POST on Wednesday and signed by its secretary, Damilola Owot, said it acknowledge the role of teachers in the building of the country, especially in raising, training, and tutoring competent youths into becoming those who will bear the responsibility to drag Nigeria out of poverty and misery. 

“World Teachers’ Day was established to appreciate teachers and to honour them in respect to their enormous work and tremendous impact in the community and the nation at large. 

“We cannot imagine a Nigeria without teachers! For us in WYSN, the role of teachers is grossly underestimated, under-recognized, and under-appreciated. Without teachers, many skills, abilities, expertise and attitudes would be wasting and rotting in the streets! 

“Right from a child’s tender age, teachers have been the one tutoring, mentoring, encouraging, advising, tailoring, and guiding every Nigerian child towards discovering his/her self, developing relevant skills and becoming useful individual who can advance the scientific and humanitarian discoveries that has brought us this far! 

“Teachers give their time, skills, expertise, wisdom and talents to raise and develop other children into useful persons. Because of teachers, workers, doctors, professors, engineers, accountants etc. are not roaming about the street but contributing their own quota towards improving and advancing nature,” they said. 

The WYSN also called for better renumeration and improved welfare packages for Teachers in the country. 

“Despite all of the vital roles teachers play in developing the economy, these professionals are grossly underpaid. We believe that teachers play a pivotal role and deserve better pay. Therefore, we call on the Federal, State and Local governments to begin the process of reviewing the remuneration scheme of teachers in order to grand them a decent income. 

“We also demand better welfare packages, including but not limited to scholarships for children of teachers, full health care insurance, free access to basic infrastructures (land and homes), grants and interest-free loans, among others”. 

They also urged the Federal Government to immediately meet the demands of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who are also teachers  and ensure that universities are reopened immediately.

“While we celebrate our teachers, we cannot but call on the government to immediately meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who are currently on strike demanding an improved payment structure, improved funding and adoption of UTAS, among many others. 

“We believe that all of these demands are vital towards achieving that quality education we need. 

“More than before, Nigeria needs to completely revamp the educational sector and put in place policies that will advance the rights of the most downtrodden layers of society. Immediate reopening of our universities is one key and primary step to achieving this goal”, WYSN added.