World Teachers’ Day: Buhari Approves Special Salary Scale For Teachers, Increases Years Of Service

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a special salary scale for teachers in the country in celebration of 2020 World Teachers Day.

The education minister, Adamu Adamu, who represented President Buhari at the event in Abuja on Monday, expressed that the implementation of the new salary scheme is to encourage teachers in delivering better service.

The 2020 theme of the World Teachers’ Day is Teachers: “leading in crisis, reimagining the future”.

Adamu stated that the President has also increased the number of service years for the teachers from 35 to 40.

The World Teachers’ Day has been held annually on October 5 since 1994 to commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers.

According to UNESCO, this Recommendation sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.

The organisation stated;

The Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel was adopted in 1997 to complement the 1966 Recommendation by covering teaching and research personnel in higher education.

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education, and the dedicated target (SDG 4.c) recognizing teachers as key to the achievement of the Education 2030 agenda, WTD has become the occasion to mark progress and reflect on ways to counter the remaining challenges for the promotion of the teaching profession.

The World Teachers’ Day is co-convened every year by UNESCO, UNICEF, the International Labour Organization and Education International.