BY DAVID DARI
The paramount ruler of Kube Chiefdom in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State who is also a retired civil servant, His Royal Highness Christopher Jatau has said that, for newly recruited teachers to meet up with the test of time in their profession they must adopt discipline, gentleness, kind, simple and trustworthy.
Jatau who made the observation while presenting a paper at this year’s World Teachers Day with the theme: ‘Young Teachers, The Future Of The Profession’ held in Lafia, the sate capital on 5th October. He added that when the said attributes are practical the teaching profession becomes more attractive and get more participants.
According to him, their concern at the moment was on the teacher not minding whether he/she is old or young but rather not too long teacher will soon be old saying that, the teacher in the class room has a relatively high degree of autonomy.
In his words, “The teacher is expected to have a good knowledge of the various teaching approaches as well as the different factors which affect learning situation. These include the physical condition of the class, the pupils; emotional condition, their health and family background. This is how the teacher will know how to guide his pupils to learn according to their individual learning capacities.
He said this cannot be easily achieved without the support of the authorities concerned. “How can the young teachers, strengthen the future of the profession when they are no more earning their promotion, and even when they do, no financial benefits in most cases.
“Duty posts are carried out on god-fatherism and environmental learning facilities in most cases are mere pronouncements”.
In his welcome address at the occasion the Nasarawa State chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Jatau Tete Francis said, “Here I would like to understand that as we came on board, we have good plans for the union of teachers, but due to some challenges which are not peculiar to teachers, but to the entire civil servants in the state, we cannot do otherwise.
“We are happy to have a new Executive Governor which we believe that will give us a listing ear as he pilots the affairs of the state with the hope that he will take Nasarawa State to the next level”.
He however, appealed to the state governor Engineer Abdullahi Sule to kindly look into their challenges and provide solutions which he said they includes arrears of salaries of 24 months, years of service for teachers and retirement age, staff replacement and deployment, Teachers Promotion/Annual Increment, Transfer Allowances among others.
