{"id":67712,"date":"2025-06-10T12:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=67712"},"modified":"2025-06-10T12:13:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:13:48","slug":"educationist-demands-higher-qualifications-better-pay-for-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/10\/educationist-demands-higher-qualifications-better-pay-for-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Educationist demands higher qualifications, better pay for teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anifowoshe Oladipupo<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prominent education advocate and CEO of Educare, Alex Onyia, has proposed bold reforms aimed at revamping Nigeria\u2019s ailing education system; starting with demanding higher qualifications and better pay for teachers.<\/p>\n

In a series of social media posts on Monday, Onyia insisted that the minimum requirement to become a teacher should be a master\u2019s degree, with a second-class upper (2:1) in the first degree, arguing that \u201cbeing a teacher should be something of great pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were in charge, I\u2019d enforce this immediately,\u201d he wrote, while also proposing a new starting salary of \u20a6400,000 monthly, an upward review from his earlier suggestion of \u20a6300,000 \u2014 alongside the provision of a new car payable over time.<\/p>\n

Onyia cited Finland as a success story, where every teacher holds a master\u2019s degree and is well-paid. \u201cThe best should train the coming generations,\u201d he emphasized, also advocating biannual licence renewal linked to continuous training and exams.<\/p>\n

His comments have stirred debate online.<\/p>\n

Critics argue the master\u2019s degree requirement is excessive. A user, Ikenna, said, \u201cA bachelor\u2019s degree holder is more than qualified to teach at primary and secondary levels. It\u2019s not about the class of degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another, Mikail, warned the policy could disqualify over half of Nigerian schools, but admitted that purging substandard institutions could help raise standards.<\/p>\n

J. Opara supported raising the bar but called for flexibility. \u201cLet\u2019s require a degree in Education, or a one-year PGD for non-education graduates,\u201d he suggested. He also pushed for better welfare: mortgage and car loans, subsidized health care and school fees, and foreign training tied to service bonds.<\/p>\n

Kolawole stressed practical competence over academic results: \u201cMinimum requirement should be proven ability to teach, not just paper qualifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others expressed concern about rural realities. Holly Aboh questioned how low-income communities in places like rural Niger State could cope. Georgevin Jr. warned the plan could worsen educational access.<\/p>\n

Despite the backlash, Onyia\u2019s proposal has reignited urgent conversations on education quality, teacher dignity, and the future of learning in Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anifowoshe Oladipupo   Prominent education advocate and CEO of Educare, Alex Onyia, has proposed bold reforms aimed at revamping Nigeria\u2019s ailing education system; starting with demanding higher qualifications and better pay for teachers. In a series of social media posts on Monday, Onyia insisted that the minimum requirement to become a teacher should be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":67713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67714,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67712\/revisions\/67714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}