The spiraling inflation is eroding whatever amount of increase that has been added to the emoluments and pensions of serving and retired teachers by the public and private sectors, thereby provoking persistent calls for better attention to improve on the welfare of teachers around the nation.

The latest passionate appeal for better treatment of teachers came from Dr. Chinenye Ebele Onuorah, who spoke in Lagos at a training programme for about 500 serving and retired teachers. Dr. Onuorah, who is a trainer for educators and Team Lead of Regalo Hope Foundation , a non-governmental organisation, called for more viable programmes to improve the condition of service for teachers nationwide.

She noted that both the federal and state governments still need to do more for teachers just as she said also that private school owners , religious bodies and the private sector need to partner with government to improve the condition of teachers.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has again appealed to President Bola Tinubu to implement welfare packages approved for members by his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, since 2020.

The National President of the union, Audu Amba, who made the appeal in an interview with reporters, said five years after the federal government promised to implement a special salary structure and other welfare packages for teachers, the promises had remained unfulfilled.

Amba noted that the unfulfilled promises are partly responsible for the broader challenges affecting teachers’ morale, productivity, and well-being. He subsequently appealed to the government to ensure full implementation of the approved incentives to boost the morale of teachers in the discharge of their professional duties.

Eminent statistician and Chief Lecturer, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Dr Olusesan Olufolabo, has emphasised the importance of statistics in decision-making and highlighted the role of data in driving innovation and economic development.

Olufolabo, who disclosed this in his lecture, titled: ‘Unlocking insights: The power of statistics in today’s data-driven world,’ noted that informed decisions in various aspects of life require data analysis and statistical literacy.

He highlighted how his research contributed to the national policy on exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life, which was then propagated and sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the federal government to prioritise education, insisting that if Nigeria is to break free from the vicious cycle of backwardness and underdevelopment, education must be placed at the centre of national rebirth.

ASUU National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, who disclosed this in an interview, lamented that successive administrations in the country give scant attention to the development of the education sector, which he described as key to achieving meaningful development of any nation.

He maintained that unless governments at all levels stop paying lip service to education and begin to invest genuinely in the development of the sector, the country would remain underdeveloped. Piwuna, who identified inadequate funding as the bane of the sector, said the government must increase its allocation to education to enhance national growth and development.

Loughborough University has reiterated its intention to establish sustained academic partnerships in Nigeria aimed at strengthening local capacity and contributing to national development across key sectors.

Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, the university’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, Professor Sam Grogan, said Loughborough is engaging Nigerian institutions with a view to developing enduring relationships that focus on both infrastructure and human capital.

Grogan cited the university’s existing cooperation with Nigeria’s Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) on scholarship programmes as a foundation for broader collaboration. He noted that the partnership spans critical sectors such as oil and gas, renewable energy, and other fields tied to Nigeria’s long-term development goals.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) on Tuesday requested that all approved schools upload and verify their students’ information on the new Student Loan Application System (SLAS). NELFUND, in a public notice signed by spokesperson Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, said SLAS has now been fully digitised to streamline and accelerate the student loan processing experience for institutions and applicants.

“With this upgrade, all accredited institutions are now required to request access to SLAS to verify and upload student data related to loan applications. This is a critical step that ensures the timely processing and disbursement of approved student loans,” NELFUND said.

According to NELFUND, schools must now request access to the new platform by sending an email to registration@nelf.gov.ng. Once access is granted, institutions will be able to log in to a real-time dashboard, where they can view their students’ applications, confirm details, and track the progress of each loan request.

Heads of federal tertiary institutions have raised the alarm over worsening funding constraints and critical staffing shortages that continue to cripple the smooth running of universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across Nigeria.

Speaking during a one-day interactive meeting in Abuja with Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts, and regulatory agencies of federal tertiary institutions in Abuja, the institution leaders painted a bleak picture of delayed salaries, underfunded governing councils, and cumbersome recruitment processes that have left many campuses relying on visiting lecturers due to their inability to hire permanent staff.

As the sector transitions from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), the officials called for urgent interventions to address persistent bureaucratic bottlenecks and ensure more efficient use of already allocated funds.

Let me join other Nigerians to congratulate His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the successful completion of two years as the Executive President and the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces, running the affairs of Nigeria.

The primary purpose of this (open) letter is to call the attention of our distinguished president to the plight and condition of service of academic members of staff of Nigerian public universities in this dispensation. The morale among this category of staff has never been this low since I was hired as an academic staff member at the University of Ibadan in 1989 some thirty-six years ago.

The passion to teach effectively and to do cutting-edge research has seriously gone down. I believe it is the president only that can intervene like he did in the case of judicial officers and military personnel recently. The gains that our universities have recorded through the efforts of our past heroes in academia must not be allowed to go down the drain.

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) received approximately ₦1.024 trillion in revenue from education taxes over the last five years.

This was disclosed by NEITI Executive Secretary, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, during a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between NEITI and TETFund in Abuja. The event marked a new partnership aimed at boosting transparency, accountability, and data-driven decision-making in education funding.

According to a statement issued by NEITI’s Deputy Director of Communication and Stakeholders Management, Mr. Chris Ochonu, Orji said the agreement would facilitate seamless information and data sharing between both agencies.

The Federal Government through the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning has said over 60 per cent of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) graduates are securing employment or starting business in the country.

The Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Sampson Ebimaro, made this known at a one-day workshop held in Birnin Kebbi on Monday. The workshop on the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) was organised by the ministry.

The perm-sec, represented by Mrs Ayinde-Yakubu Olasumbo, the Director, National Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the ministry, said the programme aimed to curb the scourge of poverty among Nigerians. Ebimaro observed that NPRGS was a key government initiative designed to accelerate national development by lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within a decade.

A frontline member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti Star and former member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Bamidele Faparusi, has commended Governor Biodun Oyebanji for setting machinery in motion for the recruitment of another set of 1,800 teaching and and non-teaching staff into the state secondary schools.

Faparusi, a former Commissioner for Public Utilities in Ekiti State, averred that the recruitment would further propel the state to the forefront of educational ladder in the country, with that cadre being ridded of dearth of competent personnel that can effectively drive the strategic sector.

The state government, on Monday, began the conduct of examinations for the thousands of applicants that applied to take up teaching job in the Ekiti State Teaching Service Commission. Commenting on the recruitment process, Faparusi commended Governor Oyebanji’s glowing zeal and unbending dedication to fortify the education sector through recruitment of qualified teachers to rejig the system.

Dozens of teachers under the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) in Manicaland, Monday, staged a protest over paltry salaries and poor working conditions. Since 2018, the teachers have been demanding at least US$1,260 monthly salary from the government.

They currently earn around US$300, and many struggle to afford basic necessities like healthcare, education and accommodation. "We are sick and tired of the peanuts that we are being paid. It is high time we demanded our US$1,260 salary a month.

"That money will be enough to take our children to school. We also demand basic education for all. "The elites have been able to take their children to universities out of the country. Our children are languishing in poverty; it is high time we make sure that our children are taken to quality education," said one of the protesters.