The Nigerian government has approved an increase in the retirement age of teachers in the country.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who revealed this to Journalists at the end of the first cabinet meeting for the year presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosed that the new retirement age for teachers is now 65 years or 40 years of service.
He said the Federal Executive Council also approved that bill to be known as ‘Harmonized Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Bill 2020’ be sent to the National Assembly to give legal backing to the approval.
Hitherto, the retirement age of teachers in the country was 60 years while years of service was pegged at 35.
The Minister said government decided to increase the years as a reward for teachers’ dedication to duty and also to attract more people to the profession.
He said: “This memo that was approved for the Ministry of Education is a giant step towards what we set out to do last year, with the approval of some special packages for teachers by the President. So, at the meeting today, Council approved that a bill which will be called harmonized Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Bill 2020 be sent to the National Assembly for enactment into law so that all the promises made by the President and all the approvals he had given to me will now begin to be put into effect because this is the legal backing that is required for it.”
Giving highlights of the proposed bill, the Minister said: “The essence of the bill actually is to give legal backing for the approval of a new retirement age of 65 for teachers and then the service period being extended to 40 years.
“The intention is to attract the best brains to the teaching profession and for that, the President approved the reintroduction of bursary awards, improving teacher quality, funding teaching practice form TETFUND, enhanced entry point for teachers. The President also approved that there should be some special allowances, like rural posting allowance and science teachers’ allowance.”
Adamu stressed that the current administration intends to do for teachers what has never been done for them before and this is the first step towards that.
Nnenna.O
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