Not All Teachers Will Enjoy 65 Years Retirement Package, Says FG As Revealed Those That Are Entitled

Not All Teachers Will Enjoy 65 Years Retirement Package, Says FG As Revealed Those That Are Entitle

Not All Teachers Will Enjoy 65 Years Retirement Package, Says FG As Revealed Those That Are Entitle

The Federal Government has said only teachers registered and licensed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) will benefit from its 65 years retirement age extension.

The government said for teachers in public schools to benefit from the package, they must be certified and licensed by the TRCN.

It said the implementation had started with teachers in unity schools, who had attained the 60 years retirement, but asked to stay on for another five years.

The government said the goal is to retain the best brains in the teaching profession.

TRCN’s Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, said these in an interview with The Nation.

He also said arrangements to pay N75,000 and N50,000 bursary to undergraduate students studying Education in tertiary institutions was being fine-tuned.

Ajiboye said: “Implementation of the bursary for undergraduates studying Education is at the ministerial level. The Minister of Education has communicated to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) for the funding of the bursary allowance and teaching practice for both lecturers and students.

“The other components that are also being implemented with regard to retaining of teachers is the 65 years retirement age extension. We commenced the implementation of that in January 2021. All teachers who have reached 60 years as of 2021 have been asked to stay on the job.

“Certain guidelines have been developed and approved at the level of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, who is the chairperson of the implementation committee. That committee has approved the guidelines for implementation of the 65 years and we have started implementing it at the federal level.

“In the implementation of the 65 years, if you are not a registered teacher with TRCN and you do not have both certificate and licence, you will not be able to benefit from the 65 years; the same thing for the bursary. It is not going to be for everybody.”

The registrar said only undergraduates who are in First-Class or Second-Class Upper would benefit from the bursary award.

“There are going to be certain classes of students, like those in the First-Class, Second-Class Upper, that will be supported. We are going to target the best of the best because the aim is to target the best brains to teach for this bursary award,” he said.

Ajiboye said the Federal Government was working with the states to ensure that teachers at state levels benefit from the incentives rolled out by President Muhammadu Buhari on World Teachers’ Day in 2020.

“We have met with state governments at the level of the National Council on Establishment to be able to secure their buy-in, and it was approved at that level. We expect the state governments to commence implementation soon.

“The goal of everybody is to make sure that we are able to achieve this and to make sure that the teaching profession is well repositioned. The Federal Government is going to implement what it has approved,” he added.

The TRCN boss said the Federal Government was committed to cleaning up the teaching profession.

The registrar attributed some of the challenges in the teaching profession to teachers in private schools.

“A large number of negative reports that we are having from schools today are coming from teachers in private schools,” he said.

Ajiboye added: “As at the last count, we have registered about 2.3 million teachers in Nigeria with TRCN. Generally, we have about 4 million teachers. We still have a long way to go. With this 65 years (retirement age), which is bringing the attraction to teaching, so many people are now coming up to register. That is the beauty of it; that is what government wants to achieve with the age elongation: to be able to attract best brains to the profession and be able to retain experienced teachers on the job.

“We have so many who were not interested in registering before that are now running to ensure that they register with TRCN.”