The Registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Dr Ronke Soyombo, has expressed concern over the poor remuneration of teachers in some private schools, revealing that some educators still earn as little as N20,000 monthly.
She spoke on Wednesday at the Annual Summit of the Conference for Private School Associations held in Lagos, themed “Transformation of Education in Lagos State.”
Soyombo said improving teachers’ welfare was essential to raising educational standards, stressing that teachers remained the foundation of quality education systems.
Soyombo particularly decried the welfare conditions of many teachers, recounting the experience of an award-winning educator who had to sell a vehicle he received as a reward because of poor earnings.
“I remember when Governor Dapo Abiodun and I were going to present a car to the best teacher. He was from a private school. He got a car.
“A week later, I saw him walking on the road and asked what happened to the car. He said he had sold it. When I asked why, he said he was being paid N20,000 monthly,” she said.
The registrar noted that poor remuneration remained one of the major factors affecting teacher motivation and retention in schools
“If we want good service, we have to pay teachers well. For us to get quality service from good teachers and stop them from looking left, right and centre, they also want to send their children to good schools, so let’s pay teachers good money,” she added.
According to her, proprietors of private schools often worry that investments in teacher training may benefit competing schools if trained staff leave for better opportunities.
“Proprietors are scared and worried that if we improve the standard of our teachers, would they stay or go to other schools? We have to look at the conditions of service and make teachers the cornerstone of a quality educational system,” she stated.
She maintained that Nigeria could not transform its education sector without transforming the teaching profession and fostering stronger collaboration with private schools.
The TRCN registrar lamented that many education reforms failed because teachers were often excluded from the centre of policy implementation.
“Teachers remain the cornerstone of quality education systems. A lot of people try to improve education while ignoring the teachers from the outset,” she said.
Soyombo further called for stronger teacher regulation, continuous professional development, safeguarding measures and the responsible use of artificial intelligence in classrooms.
She disclosed that the council had enhanced its digital teacher portal to facilitate registration, licensing, certification, and verification processes, and that plans were underway to launch a mobile application for teachers nationwide.
The TRCN boss also revealed that the council was strengthening safeguarding mechanisms, including a toll-free line for reporting sexual abuse and professional misconduct, as well as plans to introduce criminal record checks for teachers.
Also speaking at the summit, renowned entrepreneur and former chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Ibukun Awosika, said effective leadership remained the most critical factor in achieving meaningful transformation in education.
Delivering a presentation titled “The Role of Leadership in the Transformation of Education,” Awosika argued that no nation could attain sustainable development without an educated and enlightened population.
“There is no development in any nation without an educated population. The extent of the enlightenment of the population is critical to the ability of the state or nation to develop and deliver on its agenda,” she said.
According to her, education must be deliberately aligned with a state’s economic and developmental aspirations to produce the human capital required for growth.
“You need minds that can think, minds that can innovate, minds that can create and influence the larger society. Leadership is responsible for the larger vision and for harnessing all the talents, gifts and abilities available in the ecosystem,” she stated
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