The House of Representatives Committee on University Education has sought an increase in the salaries of teachers from primary to the tertiary levels.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abubakar Fulata, said teachers in the country should take home N250,000 for primary schools, N500,000 for secondary schools and N1 million for university lecturers as their monthly remuneration.
Fulata, who was speaking at a National Stakeholders’ Workshop on the development of a roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector (2023-2027) in Abuja on Thursday, noted that it is important for teachers in Nigeria to be encouraged with a good salary structure so they would impact quality knowledge to their pupils and students.
He added that efforts had been made by past administrations as regards the country’s education, but those efforts have not yielded the desired results.
“It is a thing of concern that, for decades, several efforts have been made by successive governments to resuscitate and improve the education sector, and those efforts have continued to create very little progress,” he said.
“No primary school teacher should earn less than N250,000 in a month, no secondary school teacher should earn less than N500,000, and no university teacher should earn less than 1 million in a month.
“The nation must declare a state of emergency in education. We must commit at least 25 percent to 30 percent of our national budget to education.
“It is high time we pay them adequately so that they can teach our children,” he said.