Education Minister gives reasons for new retirement age, length of service for teachers

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Education, Rt Hon Goodluck Nanah Opiah has given reasons why the Federal Government considered it necessary to increase the retirement age for teachers from 60 to 65 years and the length of service from 35 to 40 years.

According to the Minister, the decision of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to take the new position is based on recognition of the role of teachers and their wealth of experience in nation building.

He made this disclosure when he attended the occasion of the 38th Combined Ceremony of the Federal College of Education (Technical) Akoka, Lagos held on Friday, April 28, 2023.

In his speech, Rt Hon Opiah disclosed that Nigeria’s education system rests not only on policy statements but also on the quality of the drivers of the system.

“Hence, this administration recently introduced Teachers’ Professional Examination organized by Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TCRN) with the aim of ensuring that only the ‘professionals’ remain in the system. This has far reaching implication for the teaching profession,” the Minister said.

“Teachers and Students in the field of Technical and Vocational Education enjoy robust support in terms of funding and provision of instructional materials and equipment. Grants and scholarships are also available to them in order to sustain and maximize the benefits of TVE. In Colleges of Education generally, government encourages interventions from TETFUND, PTDF, ADB, MDGs, and World Bank (STEP-B) to ameliorate the difficulties and challenges militating against capacity building among teachers in Colleges of Education.

“Government has initiated skills development, which involves the institutionalization of Nigerian Skill Qualifications Framework (NSQF) in the country. This is aimed at providing a platform for assessing and qualifying learning/skills for the workplace in both the formal and informal sectors thereby providing opportunity for up-skilling and re-skilling of the nation’s workforce in the vocational and technical sectors.”

To the graduands, the Minister expressed optimism that the feat achieved would be a springboard to the next level of life accomplishments either in pursuit of higher education or establishment of business ventures where they would apply entrepreneurial skills which they acquired during their studies. He challenged them to go into the world and strive to contribute meaningfully to the society.

The Minister appreciated the management and staff for their cooperation and support as well as the students for making the occasion a reality.