WORLD TEACHERS DAY: THE FORGOTTEN BUILDERS OF TOMORROW
By Anthony EKPO BASSEY
They say the hand that holds the chalk writes the future. On this World Teachers’ Day, we rise in honour of those whose voices echo beyond the classroom walls. We acknowledge and appreciate teachers, the silent architects of every great mind, the candle that burns to light others. From the dusty benches of village primary schools to the hallowed halls of universities, teachers bear the burden of shaping a nation that often forgets them.
A nation that treats its teachers like afterthoughts is one that digs its own grave. How do we expect gold from a pot we have refused to polish? Many teachers go months without pay, teach in overcrowded, dilapidated classrooms, and live on wages that cannot carry them from one end of the month to the other. And yet, they show up, driven not by salary, but by service, a rare loyalty.
It is a crying shame that, sixteen years on, the Federal Government of Nigeria has failed to fully honour the 2009 agreement with ASUU. How long shall promises gather dust while lecture halls fall into ruin? The constant strikes are not the fault of the lecturers, but of a system that listens only when the drums of protest beat loud. These disruptions are not mere inconveniences, they are brain drains in motion, driving our best minds into frustration and exile.
Education is not a sector to be managed with leftovers; it is the engine room of national progress. The teachers we neglect today will become the ghosts that haunt our future because when the roots are weak, the tree cannot stand.
To all teachers, we salute your patience, your passion, and your pain. Your reward must not remain in heaven while you suffer on earth. And to the government, the time for lip service is over. Fulfil your promises, fund education, honour your agreements. A country that toys with its teachers is playing dice with its destiny.
The chalk may be small, but in the right hand, it builds empires. Let us not wait until the classroom is empty and the mind is closed before we realise what we have lost.
