World Teachers’ Day: NLC demands living wage for teachers, union rights for private school tutors

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called connected the Federal and State Governments to prioritize teachers’ payment by implementing a surviving wage, amended backing nationalist education, and enforcing the rights of teachers successful backstage schools to articulation unions.

NLC President, Joe Ajaero, made the telephone successful Abuja during the 2025 World Teachers’ Day solemnisation themed “Recasting Teaching arsenic a Collaborative Profession.” He said Nigeria indispensable put deliberately successful acquisition to rescue the strategy from decay and reposition teachers for nationalist development.

“The planetary taxable for this year—‘Recasting Teaching arsenic a Collaborative Profession’—resonates profoundly with our Nigerian reality. Yet, we indispensable face the foundational situation that has agelong bedeviled our acquisition system, a situation that has kept teachers connected the fringes of nine contempt being the cardinal drivers of nationalist development,” Ajaero stated.

He said the planetary teacher situation highlighted by UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF, and Education International is Nigeria’s mundane reality, lamenting that the state is facing “a terrible shortage of qualified teachers, an alarming encephalon drain, and a strategy wherever nonrecreational isolation has go the norm.”

“Few recognize that trained and qualified teachers are progressively scarce successful Nigeria due to the fact that we person allowed untrained individuals to capable our classrooms without capable preparation,” helium added.

The NLC President decried the precocious teacher-to-student ratio successful Nigeria’s schools, describing it arsenic “alarming and counterproductive.” He said an mean teacher successful the country’s nationalist schools handles up to 50 pupils oregon students, which, according to him, undermines the learning environment.

“Teaching is inherently collaborative, and it has go important that we make an effectual nationalist model to span this gap—training and certifying unqualified unit to amended learning outcomes. The information remains: portion galore radical tin thatch something, not everyone is simply a teacher,” helium said.

Ajaero condemned what helium described arsenic the hypocrisy of nine towards teachers, saying Nigeria glorifies them successful speeches but impoverishes them successful reality.

“In Nigeria, we person perfected the creation of praising teachers to precocious heavens portion starving them connected earth. We extol the nobility of the teaching assemblage yet reward that nobility with indignity, dishonor, and scorn. We admit that teachers clasp the cardinal to our nation’s future, yet we confine them to a contiguous filled with struggle, neglect, and near-starvation,” helium lamented.

He further questioned wherefore tuition and levies successful schools proceed to emergence portion teachers’ salaries stay stagnant.

“Where does this wealth go? It surely does not scope the teacher successful the classroom. This injustice strikes astatine the precise bosom of our acquisition system. If we genuinely tendency prime education, we indispensable archetypal guarantee a decent prime of beingness for our teachers,” helium said.

The NLC President urged governments astatine each levels to marque deliberate and sustained investments successful education, stressing that countries specified arsenic China, India, and respective Western nations made advancement lone aft prioritizing education.

“Our schools indispensable beryllium amended funded—because therein lies our future. Every federation that has achieved sustainable advancement has laid its instauration connected prime education. Whatever we do, we indispensable enactment our wealth wherever our rima is—in education,” Ajaero emphasized.

He linked the payment of teachers straight to the prime of acquisition they provide.

“A teacher burdened by hunger, rent, and transport worries cannot beryllium a fountain of creativity and inspiration. You cannot springiness what you bash not have. The rewards of teaching indispensable not beryllium postponed to heaven—they indispensable beryllium delivered present connected earth,” helium said.

Recalling his ain acquisition arsenic a schoolroom teacher, Ajaero said helium understood the struggles educators look daily.

“I began my travel arsenic a trained teacher—standing successful a schoolroom surrounded by anxious students. I cognize firsthand the challenges, frustrations, and triumphs of that calling. If Nigeria indispensable grow, we indispensable turn the teaching profession,” helium said.

He outlined cardinal demands of the NLC, including designation of teaching arsenic the “queen of each professions,” accrued acquisition backing to conscionable UNESCO’s 6% of GDP and 20% of full nationalist expenditure benchmark, and improved collaboration among teac...