World Teachers Day: FG to resuscitate ailing Education Bank

Augustine Okezie, Abuja

The federal government on Tuesday in Abuja pledged to resuscitate the ailing Education Bank, with a view to strengthening her assistance to indigent students through scholarship, enhance the welfare of the teachers as well as ensure speedy growth and transformation of Nigeria’s education sector.

Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, who made the above disclosure yesterday during press briefing organised by the Ministry to herald series of activities marking the celebration, said the World Teacher’s Day which is celebrated annually every October 5th was initiated by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), designed to promote teacher’s status in the interest of quality education

The Minister further described the theme of this year’s celebration which is ‘’Teaching in Freedom, Empowering teachers’’ as reaffirming the fact that peace and security remain important for the national development and that education guarantees economic growth and development.

Adamu further described teachers as guiding light in a dark world and the providers of hope for the future of any nation.

He said ’’let me reiterate that without teacher’s total dedication and commitment to their calling, a nation could be wandering in the dark. Nation building certainly does not happen by accident rather it’s a deliberate and conscious effort by men and women with a vision and determination to leave enduring legacies’’

Also in a message delivered by the Representative of UNESCO in Abuja office, Mrs. Uchenna Udorji, the agency called for full implementation of the October 5, 1994 UNESCO/ILO recommendations which set forth the rights and responsibilities of teachers as well as international standards for their initial preparation, recruitment, deployment, professional development and teaching conditions

She said’’ By adopting the recommendation, governments all over the world unanimously recognized the importance for societies to have competent qualified and motivated teachers; World Teachers Day represents a token for the awareness, understanding and appreciation displayed for the vital contribution that teachers make to education and development.’’

The World teacher’s Day is expected to be marked on Thursday October 5 in Nigeria