The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has condemned the National Examination Council (NECO) for a “demeaning and unacceptable” representation of teachers and the teaching profession in a recent exam question.
In the Igbo Essay Paper of the June/July 2024 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), NECO included a passage that described teachers as never being noble and implied that they are only motivated by financial gain.
The derogatory passage reads, inter alia, “Teaching is a noble profession,
But teachers are never noble,
Whoever God wants to punish
Pushes him to be a schoolmaster,
There he dreams for wealth that is far away
It needs patience to be a teacher
Their past students seem to be their reward
Teachers are all mathematicians
They are regarded so because they calculate
And recalculate their budgets (See Question No. 7 of NECO Igbo Essay Paper attached herewith).
NUT, in a press release on Wednesday, said its members consider this disrespectful misrepresentation of teachers and the teaching profession by NECO most unfortunate and unacceptable.
The union, however, called on the Minister of Education to intervene and ensure that the damage done to teachers and the teaching profession is corrected.
NUT also demanded a public apology from NECO, as well as steps to re-orientate students and correct the negative public perception generated by the passage.
“Tender a public apology to teachers over the derogatory misrepresentation. Take necessary steps to re-orientate students in order to remedy the… negative impressions created on their minds about the teaching profession, and to ensure that such misleading action is not repeated in the future. Take further steps to correct the negative public perception it has generated about the teacher and the teaching profession, and to henceforth uphold the dignity of the profession in the country,” it stated.
NUT also noted the need for education stakeholders, well-meaning Nigerians, and the government to promote the social and occupational status of teachers in the interest of effective delivery of education, noting that “the teaching profession has not been accorded its rightful status in our education system.”
