President Buhari seeks sound education sector, better deal for teachers, promotes military officers

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that the revival of the educational sector with focus on teaching of values like integrity in schools would require giving priority to the welfare and training of teachers who directly create the enabling environment for learning.

Receiving a delegation from the Arewa House Centre for Historical Documentation and Research at the Presidential Villa, Buhari said the quality of training, welfare and happiness of teachers directly impact on the quality of education children and adults get in schools, urging more focus and research on impact of teachers.

A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said the president was reacting to a proposal by the visitors to start a yearly “Buhari Integrity Lecture Series.”

The Nigerian leader stated: “If it has to do with integrity, we must go back to history and try to assess the contribution of teachers to education, where teachers treated every child as their own in instilling discipline and sharing of knowledge.

“I have been lucky to be in boarding school for nine years, three years in primary school and six years in secondary school before I joined the military. And if we are talking of good education, it has to start with the teaching in schools, where children grow and the environment of learning.”

He noted that education cuts across the three tiers of government, adding that it was important to consider who pays the teachers at every level and finds out if they get adequately compensated to provide quality education.

“We must make education and health a priority relative to the resources available,” the president added.

Buhari said the challenge of repositioning the educational sector and cultivating strong moral values in children goes beyond the northern part of Nigeria, and should be pursued holistically at a national level.

“Your nomenclature is Arewa, but the problem of education is a national issue,” he said.

The Director of Arewa House, Professor Idris Shaaba Jimada, told the president that there was need to inculcate the virtue of integrity that he had stood for over the years as an important aspect of development.

Besides, the presidency has approved the accelerated promotion of two senior officers and a subaltern of the Nigerian Army.

The beneficiaries were granted promotion for their exceptional feats, courage, exemplary leadership, loyalty, uncommon commitment and valour in the counter-insurgency operation in the North East.

Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, in a statement yesterday, named the two senior officers as the Chief of Training and Operations at Army Headquarters, Major-General LO Adeosun, who got elevated to the rank of a lieutenant-general and the General Officer Commanding 7 Division and Commander, Sector 2 Operation LAFIYA DOLE Maiduguri, Brigadier General AB Biu, who is now a major-general.

Also, promoted to the rank of captain is Lieutenant AJ Danjibrin of 211 Demonstration Battalion, Bauchi.