The staff room, a place where minds should converge in intellectual camaraderie, where the echoes of chalk on blackboard should translate into the future of a nation, has become a wrestling ground. The viral video from Ibru College, Delta State, has exposed a deeper rot—one that does not just stain the walls of a single institution but reflects a nationwide affliction. Two teachers, supposed role models, grappling like gladiators in a coliseum of frustration. What went wrong? How did we get here?
A nation that neglects its teachers digs a grave for its future. Education, the very foundation upon which society rests, is being compromised. These teachers, weary and burdened, are soldiers without ammunition, sent to war with nothing but empty hands and hollow promises. The stress, the hunger, the unappreciated labor—it simmers until it spills over into public disgrace. Even the prophet Jeremiah lamented: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” The facade of a functional education system is cracking, revealing the wounds beneath.
A teacher in a private school today is akin to a slave in a plantation. Low wages, delayed salaries, and impossible expectations. They mold minds yet cannot afford a decent meal. They teach values yet struggle to afford a home. They produce doctors, lawyers, engineers, yet they themselves live in perpetual lack. Is this not the height of irony? Nigeria, like an ungrateful child, continues to demand sacrifices from its teachers while giving them crumbs in return. John Milton reminds us, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” But even the strongest mind, when starved and neglected, will succumb to the pressures of survival.
History will remember Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato, not for their wealth, but for the wisdom they imparted. But wisdom does not grow in the barren fields of suffering. A teacher constantly worried about rent and feeding will struggle to be an effective educator. Dr. Tai Solarin once said, “Education holds the key to our future, but if we destroy the key-bearers, how do we expect the doors of progress to open?” Yet, year after year, teachers remain at the bottom of the salary pyramid, forced into alternative means of survival.
The fight at Ibru College is only a symptom. The disease is deeper. Teachers are overworked, underpaid, and disrespected. Their mental health is ignored. They are expected to give their all but receive nothing in return. This is the reality in private schools across the nation. It is not just a fight between two teachers; it is a battle between frustration and endurance, between hope and despair. The staff room has become an arena not just of knowledge, but of pent-up rage.
God’s voice echoes through the ages: “Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Yet, the Nigerian education system has not only muzzled its teachers but starved them as well. This is not just economic injustice; it is a sin against the very fabric of society. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) also said, “The best of people are those who are most beneficial to others.” If teachers, the most beneficial to society, are treated with such disdain, what does that say about the moral compass of the nation?
Solutions exist, but who will listen? The government, private school owners, and even parents must acknowledge that teachers deserve better. Education is not charity; it is an investment. Salaries must be fair, mental health support must be provided, and teachers must be valued beyond mere lip service. The classroom should be a temple of learning, not a battlefield. Until these changes are made, the viral video from Delta State will not be the last. More fights will break out. More frustrations will boil over. And Nigeria will continue to reap the bitter harvest of its negligence.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah, Igalamela/Odolu
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