The  Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, African Union Commission ,H.E Professor Sarah Anyang Agbor has on Sunday said that teachers should start receiving their own rewards and not until when they get to heaven before they could be rewarded for their selfless service to humanity.

The AUC Commissioner who frowned at the saying that ‘teachers reward is in heaven’ slogan disclosed this in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria while speaking with CEOAFRICA stated that African Union has come up with the first ever ‘Teachers Award for Africa’ to celebrate and encourage outstanding teachers of the African continent.

In her statement “Under the Continental Education Study for Africa, there is a thematic cluster we refer to as the ‘Teachers Training Professional’. Since we speak about the quality of education in Africa, we believed that the quality of teachers will reflect on the quality of students and also the need to speak about the quality of curriculum”.

“Under the teachers training programme, we decided to come up with the first ever teachers award programme to be given to the teachers. The award was One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) but we divided it into 10 prizes, each region of the continent would have two teachers that would represent that continent. The first ever continental teachers award took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October, 2019 where we gave the awards to the 10 teachers of the 5 regions the sum of $10,000”.

The Erudite  professor  sstated that the programme is a breakthrough because they are going to continue to award the teachers of Africa for their selfless service to humanity as teachers are prime mover in the Agenda 2063 quest for education and skills revolution for achieving an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa.

She lamented that the teachers are the trainers of the accountants, medical doctors, lawyers etcetera and for that reason, they should also start having this rewards now and not until they get to heaven .

“Prof Sarah said since AU  has started this on  the continental level, member states should start the  national and regional levels reward for our teachers.

Meanwhile, the AUC Commissioner who also talked about a better education for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) said “As a commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology having education in my capacity, we also have to look at the issues of education of the refugees and the Internally Displaced Persons.

She further stated that if we speak of the transformation of the Africa we want, and inclusivity, then we need also to look at the education of the refugees and the IDPs.

She however thanks the African Union Member States for the AU Teachers Continental Award and the Scholarship they have given under the Nwalimu Nyerere scholarship which the year 2019 has been dedicated to refugees and IDPs under the education division of her department.