By Israel Joel
Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong on Monday said his administration will continue to consolidate efforts towards ensuring that the lost glory in the educational sector is recovered.
He made this known while speaking at the Governor’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award to commemorate World Teachers Day which took place in Jos.
Lalong said so far the state has made a lot of progress and improved the performance of its students in national and international examinations.
“My heart is always with our teachers because all of us became what we are today through the sacrifices of the teachers. I want to assure all our teachers of my administration to continue to ensure that salaries and allowances of teachers are paid regularly as we have done in the past six years. Similarly, the pensions of all retired teachers will also be sustained even as we work to ensure that the issue of gratuity is addressed.”
“With seasoned educational technocrats in the Ministry of Education, we have injected the use of ICT in enhancing learning and teaching. I commend the Honourable Commissioner and your lieutenants for your sacrifices and dedication.”
” It gives me great joy to address members of this great and noble teaching profession who are the conscience of the society and the engine room of our civilization and socialization. It is a common fact that without teachers, no society can develop or make any progress.”
The Governor further added that he is aware that despite efforts to address the decay and neglect of the past which his administration inherited, there is so much that still needs to be done to provide a conducive atmosphere for teachers to perform optimally.
“Your resilience and hard work is a great motivation to our administration in ensuring that we do everything possible to make our schools better.”
He added that “Apart from improving the school infrastructure, we have taken other deliberate steps to revamp the education sector here on the Plateau. “You will recall the last employment exercise were about 2,000 teachers were employed and posted to the seventeen Local Government Areas. ”
“In addition, more efforts are being made in collaboration with the World Bank program known as Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Environment Project (AGILE), where about 1,000 academic and 1,000 non-academic staff will be recruited to add to the already existing teachers in the State.”
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He called on all teachers and relevant stakeholders to redouble their efforts in observing all prescribed regulations towards ensuring the safety of students and teachers from the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic.
“This year’s theme for the World Teachers’ Day which is “Teachers at the heart of Education recovery” is timely and provides hope to our future generation. Because a lot has been lost to COVID-19, we must put all hands on deck to recover what was lost. ”
He said that ” There is a huge task ahead and teachers must be proactive to make a lasting impact in regaining lost ground and ensuring that the lives of our children are not jeopardized, We must use education to overcome this pandemic and also teach our children to be resilient and work towards finding solutions to future challenges. “
