JUST think for a second what the world would be without teachers. As the images rush through your mind, think again about the treatment teachers get from us individually, and from their employers, especially governments.

October 5 would be another World Teachers Day. It would, almost predictably, pass quietly enough. Politicians would be too busy with more important things like the hangover of the 50th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence!

In the past, those who remembered issued the usual platitudes about the importance of teachers. Hardly anyone disagrees about the vital place of teachers in society, except that we normally stop at expressing these sentiments which are lost in the hollowness of our inaction in improving the lot of teachers and by extension society’s.

The speeches would not be different from the ones offered in the past years. Everyone talks about the place of teachers, nobody is ready to pay the price to establish that place. It is sad.

As the 50th anniversary draws closer, there are better reasons to ponder about our country and the place of teachers, yes, education. No country can do without teachers, even ours where we defy logic with insulting innovativeness. Education is an established major factor in the human development index.

Countries that invest well in education are at the top bracket of human development. They reap bountifully from the benefits of education that transverse all spheres of human engagement. It is no surprise that Nigeria is found at the bottom of the table, often.

Our position in the human development index remains deceptive as it is not a full picture of the depth of the decay in various spheres of our society. If we look at education, for example, there is hardly any investment to improve the teaching environment or the education of our teachers.

While many of us admit that teaching is a thankless job, we have added to the burden of those who over the years made this humanitarian gesture to our society. They are poorly paid and live in ruinous poverty after retirement.

They form a huge part of the pension queues, society’s final signature on those it rejected.

There is very little in the life of the Nigerian teacher to recommend the profession to others. Without knowing it, the country is running on the last string of its teachers. Many of those in service are not trained, and society sees nothing wrong with that. Last year, there were talks of fake teachers, thousands of them, on governments’ pay rolls.

As the profession becomes less attractive because of the appalling conditions of service, younger people who should take over from the retiring teachers seek fulfilment elsewhere. Many of those who teach today use the profession as a stopgap to their aspirations.

How will this society survive without teachers?

When October 5 comes and Nigeria joins the world in marking Teachers Day, but we need to take the issue more seriously. Our education has problems with facilities and curriculum, resulting from government’s unwillingness to consider the sector a priority.

The sustenance of education this far has been based on the dedication of the teachers, who still relish seeing their efforts turning young men and women into the country’s leaders.

No serious country can sustain itself on such lean passions which would die with the generation that espouses it, especially now that plunging examination results are being blamed on teachers, and the future of their wards is in doubt.

Government should consider a major summit on initiative on education. Unlike past summits, it should be result oriented and find ways to make the bureaucracies around education leaner, to save funds for the welfare of teachers and provision of facilities in schools. The benefits could bring a real new birth for our country at 50.

Special attention needs to be given to attracting younger people to teaching. At all levels, they are not ready to subject themselves to a life of penury, which is what teaching has become over the years.
Very few enduring improvements can be made on the future of this society if we continue with the minimal investments we make in the welfare of the teachers.