Teachers should retire at 65 - FCT NUT chair

The chairman of the FCT wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Stephen Knabayi, has said that teachers need to retire at age 65.

He said the teaching profession needed experience and wisdom, as such it was necessary to keep old teachers in the job.

Knabayi, while speaking during an interview with our reporter in his office in Gwagwalada on Friday, said both primary and secondary teachers are needed because of their age and length of service to serve the teaching profession better.

He said the retirement age for both primary and secondary teachers was too short.

He noted that it was not proper that better hands were being pushed out of the teaching profession on account of age.

He said, a bill seeking for 65 years as retirement age for both primary and secondary teachers was before the National Assembly, adding that it had passed second reading.

He said the bill was sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives from Ogun State and hoped it would see the light of day.

Knabayi noted that since retirement age for university lecturers in the country had been reviewed from 60 to 70 years, there was nothing wrong for both primary and secondary teachers to also retire at 65 years of age.

“If you go to the judiciary today, the retirement age for judges of the Supreme Court is 70 years, while university lecturers are also to retire at the age 70. What about the primary and secondary teachers that serve as base and foundation of education,” he asked.