FG Okays New Retirement Age For Teachers

By Stephen Godonu

If the words of Education Minister Mallam Adamu Adamu are anything to go by, the implementation of the 65 year retirement age and 40 year of service approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday have taken off.

The minister, who spoke on Thursday at the 2020 ministerial briefing in Abuja, said the policies took effect from January 1.

He, however, said that there would not be a uniform take-off date for all the other policies approved by President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2020 World Teachers Day.

He said that effective dates for other policies would be announced subsequently after the submission of the report of the National Coordinating Committee.

Prior to the approval of the new retirement age and years of service by the president, the retirement age of teachers in the country was 60 years or 35 years in service.

The gesture was as a form of reward for teachers’ dedication to duty and also to attract more people to the profession.

Also, Adamu said the ministry had constituted a national working committee to work out modalities to ensure continuous learning of students across all institutions in the face of COVID-19 pandemic and prolonged ASUU’s strike.

He explained that the committee would work in collaboration with the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) to ensure the continuous learning of students.

The minister added that a grant had been obtained from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to build a National Education Cloud to warehouse educational resource materials for teachers and learners at all levels of education in the country.

”If there are further returns from donor nations in the coming weeks, candidates will be notified accordingly,” he said.

Adamu also said that two federal polytechnics would be established in Borno and Benue this year, adding that the two institutions would take off in October.