The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the Federal and State Governments to give top priority to teachers’ welfare by implementing a living wage, improving funding for public education, and enforcing the rights of teachers in private schools to join unions.
NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, made the call in Abuja during the 2025 World Teachers’ Day celebration, which had as its theme “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession.”
Ajaero said the time has come for Nigeria to deliberately invest in education as a means of rescuing the nation’s school system from collapse and ensuring that teachers are properly positioned as agents of national development.
He noted that teachers continue to play a critical role in shaping the country’s future but are often neglected in matters of welfare and career advancement.
> “The international theme for this year—‘Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession’—resonates deeply with our Nigerian reality. Yet, we must confront the foundational crisis that has long bedeviled our education system, a crisis that has kept teachers on the fringes of society despite being the key drivers of national development,” Ajaero stated.
The NLC president lamented the poor state of many public schools, inadequate teaching facilities, and the growing brain drain among educators due to low remuneration and poor working conditions. He also criticized the persistent delays in the payment of salaries and allowances, describing them as acts of injustice against those who nurture the nation’s human capital.
Ajaero called for urgent policy reforms that will restore dignity to the teaching profession and make it attractive to young graduates. He emphasized that teachers must be treated as partners in progress rather than as expendable workers, stressing that a motivated and well-paid teacher remains the cornerstone of national progress.
While commending teachers across the country for their resilience and commitment despite the challenges they face, Ajaero reiterated that no nation can rise above the quality of its teachers.
He therefore called on all levels of government to take decisive steps to improve teacher training, strengthen education funding, and promote industrial harmony in the sector.