“Teachers are the greatest of all the professionals,” says Soludo
Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo on Wednesday said any society without qualitative teachers and quality teaching cannot survive.
He described teachers as the greatest of all the professionals, stressing the future of any society could be predicted by quality of teachers and their teaching.
Soludo spoke at the 2022 World Teachers’ Day celebration organised by the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), on Wednesday, in Awka.
He appealed to the State House of Assembly to fast track legislation to harmonize the 65 years retirement age for teachers.
He said: ” Teachers are the greatest of all the professionals. If you want to assess or predict the future of any society, you have to look at the quality of the teachers and the quality of their teaching.
“Any society without qualitative teachers and quality teaching will surely die.
“Teachers contribute to the foundation of an individual and the society. So, the state and Nigeria must not joke with teachers. We must appreciate them as much as possible.”
While pledging his administration preparedness to address teachers’ challenges and education sector at large, Soludo urged them to prioritise students’ upbringing by inculcating values that would help them become responsible citizens and not criminals that would make the state unsafe.
“We will look into addressing some of your requests. We have appealed to the state Assembly to fast track legislation to harmonies the 65 years retirement age for teachers.
“Infrastructure upgrade is currently going on, we have recruited about 5,000 teachers to address manpower shortage and under my watch, every retiring teacher must get his gratuity.
“We are working to improve security in the state and in our schools and we are making efforts to gradually pay arrears of gratuity to retired teachers, ” he added.
Earlier, Anambra state Chairman, NUT, Mrs Nonye Chibueze commended the Governor for looking into the challenges of teachers and the education sector in the state.
She pledge the total commitment of the teachers to Soludo’s policies and programmes to take education sector to an enviable height.
