By Chinedu Osuji.
Today, October 5, 2026, is World Teachers’ Day, a day to recognise the enormous contributions teachers make to the education and future of Nigeria. The 2026 theme focuses on protecting the teaching profession, advancing its status and shaping our future.*
*What should be done for Nigerian teachers?*
Teachers should not only be celebrated with mere empty speeches, gifts and awards. Their welfare should be reflected in their monthly pay and working conditions. Government at all levels should:
Pay teachers good and living salaries. Teachers should earn enough to meet basic needs such as food, housing, transportation, healthcare and children’s education.
*Pay salaries promptly every month.* No teacher should have to beg, protest or wait for months before receiving his or her lawful salary. Recent discussions around teachers’ welfare have continued to highlight poor remuneration and delayed entitlements.
*Pay outstanding promotions and allowances.* When a teacher is promoted, the financial benefit should follow the promotion without years of delay.
*Provide rural and hardship allowances.* Teachers working in remote communities, difficult terrain or areas without adequate facilities deserve additional compensation. Nigerian teachers’ unions have specifically raised concerns about rural allowances.
*Improve retirement and pension benefits.* Teachers who spend 30–40 years educating Nigerian children should be able to retire with dignity and receive their pensions and gratuities promptly.
*Provide teaching materials and good classrooms.* A teacher cannot perform miracles in an overcrowded classroom without textbooks, desks, laboratories, electricity, computers and other essential resources.
*Invest in professional development.* Teachers should receive regular, properly funded training in modern teaching methods, ICT, artificial intelligence and other skills needed in today’s classrooms.
*Protect teachers’ dignity and safety.* Teachers should be respected as professionals and protected from harassment, violence and unreasonable working conditions.
*Support teachers in private schools.* Private-school teachers should also receive fair wages, reasonable working hours, leave, social protection and other basic employment rights.
*Make teaching financially attractive to young Nigerians.* If Nigeria wants excellent teachers in the future, teaching must become a respected and financially rewarding profession.
A message to government
A nation that wants quality education must first take care of its teachers
It is not enough to say “teachers are the backbone of society.” That statement must be demonstrated through good salaries, regular payment, allowances, housing and healthcare support, training, promotion, pension protection and decent working conditions.
Some states are already taking symbolic steps this year: for example, Oyo, Kwara and Ekiti declared October 5 a work-free day for teachers. Such recognition is welcome, but teachers need sustained welfare policies throughout the year—not appreciation only on October 5.
On this Teachers’ Day, let Nigeria move from celebrating teachers to genuinely valuing teachers. A well-paid, motivated and respected teacher is an investment in every Nigerian child and in the future of the nation.
