The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Cross River State Chapter, has rejected a new education policy by the Federal Ministry of Education, which forbids students wishing to study education at the tertiary institution from participating in the Unified Matriculation Tertiary Examinations (UMTE), describing it as “anti-education” and a threat to the teaching profession.”
NUT state chairman, Comrade Gregory Olayi, made the rejection yesterday in Calabar while responding to LEADERSHIP questions on the policy.
Olayi stated that the national leadership of the union had reviewed the policy and resolved to resist any attempt to “water down education in the country.”
He condemned plans to grant waivers allowing entry into teaching without exams or the UTME, warning, “If you allow every Tom, Dick and Harry to get into school without an exam or without a test, then the teaching profession will become worse.”
He accused the ministry of sidelining key stakeholders.“The Ministry of Education did not also consider the critical position Nigerian Union officers play in the education sector. If they did, they would have considered bringing them to the roundtable.”
“We are keen completely from Cross River State that we will resist any attempt by the Ministry or the policy of government to water down education,” Olayi stated, emphasizing that teaching is a profession that must be protected.
He linked the education crisis to government’s failure to recognise teaching as a core profession: “What we have today is that governments don’t recognise this profession as a profession.”
Olayi lamented that teachers are treated as “nobody” and decried the “emptiness of colleges of education and faculties of education in the universities.”
The chairman highlighted poor employment prospects, stressing that many education graduates have turned to commercial motorcycle and tricycle riding due to unemployment.
“Some drive Keke. Some are even in the villages,” he said, adding that dilapidated schools and lack of facilities like staff rooms further discourage entrants.
The union vowed to embark on strike in Cross River if directed by the national leadership, and called for improved welfare, housing schemes, rural allowances, and salary structures.
“A teacher is a role model, a brain that will become a leader tomorrow. So how do we allow such situations to happen in that sector?” he asked.
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