Head Of Service Stopped From Retiring Education Directors

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has ruled that teachers and education officers who become directors in the Federal Civil Service cannot be compulsorily retired after serving for eight years in office.

It declared that they are entitled to remain in service until they attain 65 years of age or complete 40 years of pensionable service.

In a judgment delivered in Abuja, Justice O. Y. Anuwe nullified circulars issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education seeking to enforce the federal government’s eight-year tenure policy on directors who are teachers and education officers.

The court held that the circulars were inconsistent with the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022, and therefore invalid to the extent that they applied to teachers and education officers.

The suit, marked NICN/ABJ/79/2025, was instituted by Rakiya Gambo Iliyasu, a Grade Level 17 director in the University Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education, who challenged the government’s directive requiring directors who had served for eight years to retire.

The claimant argued that, as an education officer, she qualified as a teacher under the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022, which guarantees compulsory retirement only at age 65 or after 40 years of pensionable service.

She contended that the February 2026 circulars issued by the head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the minister of Education violated the provisions of the Act by compelling her and other affected education directors to retire before reaching the statutory retirement age.

Delivering judgment, Justice O.Y. Anuwe agreed with the claimant, holding that the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act overrides any conflicting provisions of the Public Service Rules relating to retirement.

The judge ruled that Section 3 of the Act expressly exempts teachers from any Public Service Rule requiring retirement before the statutory age of 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service.

According to the court, the eight-year tenure policy set out in Rule 020909 of the Public Service Rules no longer applies to teachers and education officers, even when they occupy the position of director.

“A teacher or education officer, whether he or she got to the post of director or not, is entitled to retire from service on attaining 65 years of age or 40 years of service,” Justice Anuwe held.

The court added that serving as a director for eight years “is not a retirement condition for teachers any longer.”

Justice Anuwe also relied on the statutory definition of “teacher” under the Harmonized Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, which expressly includes Education Officers, holding that the claimant fell squarely within the category of officers protected by the law.

The judge further observed that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had, in an earlier 2025 correspondence, acknowledged that the Teachers’ Retirement Age Act superseded the eight-year tenure policy in respect of education officers and teachers, making it inconsistent for the government to later argue otherwise.

Consequently, the court declared the February 10, 2026 circular issued by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the February 24 and February 26, 2026 circulars issued by the Federal Ministry of Education illegal, null and void insofar as they applied to teachers and education officers.