Ogun State Government has been urged to reintroduce payment of hazard allowance to teachers in rural areas as a way of encouraging teachers being posted to rural areas.

The reintroduction of the allowances, it was said, would also check the craze of lobbying for posting to urban areas by teachers and also boost education in the rural areas.

The call was made by Media Partners; The Salient Times Media Services and State Post Media, at a news conference to herald Rural Teachers Award.

The award ceremony, being organised in conjunction with the Ogun State Ministry of Education, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), comes up on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.

Addressing journalists during the conference, the Publisher of Salient Times, Abiodun Taiwo, explained that the award was organised to encourage rural teachers, noting that rural-urban migration, which is prevalent in the country, is the main cause of declining quality of education in rural areas.

According to him, no teacher wants to stay in areas considered less developed due to lack of Infrastructural facilities.

Abiodun equally called on the State Government, to provide Infrastructural facilities like water, road, electricity and access roads, to check the rural-urban migration amongst teachers.

He lamented that the rural area which lays the golden eggs for government earning are being neglected.

"We are however, encouraged by policies put in place by the Administration of Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, which are aimed at developing all sectors of the state economy, including education.

"We have therefore, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, selected 13 rural teachers in both primary and secondary schools, for this maiden edition of Rural Teachers Award, in support of Prince Dapo Abiodun led Administration in education.

"We are convinced that a well-supported, easily accessible education system is an efficient means to make people economically conscious, and thereby, make them actively participate in their economic prosperity and cultural development.

"It is on record that the State Government, is not discriminatory in the treatment of teachers and core civil servants in scheme of things, including payment of salaries, pensions and promotions.

"We have designed this programme, to stop the notion among teachers that posting to rural areas, is a way to punish them but to see this as a service to humanity.

"We, therefore, agreed that rural Teachers must be motivated and encouraged," Abiodun said