Basic education in the country is not enjoying the best of times, as the dearth of teachers is threatening the delivery of quality teaching at that level.
The personnel audit conducted by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, last year showed that the nation requires additional 194,876 teachers at that level.
According to the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, the situation is aggravated by the reluctance of the government to recruit new teachers to replace retiring ones.
For instance, it is only recently that the Oyo State Government started the process of recruiting 7,000 new teachers to fill existing vacancies. Many state governments are yet to fill such vacancies and even the Federal Government has such to fill in its 115 Unity Colleges across the country. The development has led to the employment of Parent Teacher Association, PTA, teachers in many of the schools where teachers are scarce.
On the dearth of qualified teachers at that level, he blamed state governments which do not take teachers’ professional development as a priority, despite collecting 10% of UBEC grant for such purpose.
“The Federal Government sets aside 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for UBEC and the state governments directly get 10% of it for Teachers’ Professional Development and 15% for Instructional Materials, but how many states use such funds for those purposes? Even the Matching Grant of 50% that they are expected to provide for other projects, some are not faithful, “ he said at a recent forum in Lagos.
Loss in teaching workforce
Speaking last week at a six-day training organised by the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, in collaboration with the commission for 30 School Support Officers, SSOs on SMASE and Jolly Phonics in Kano, Bobboyi described the situation as frightening.
He said the country lost over 30 per cent of the teaching workforce in the past three years without them being replaced. He said some of the teachers retired while others left the service without being replaced.
According to him: “Nationwide, in the last three years, particularly beginning from the period of COVID-19, we have lost over 30 per cent of our teaching workforce, and it is very frightening. A lot of them retired while some of them left the service without being replaced.
“So, for Kano to be taking proactive measure in that regard is something that pleases me immensely. And I hope and pray other states should also learn from Kano and make sure that it can also take serious measures,” he said.
“The teacher is a very fundamental element in the entire ecosystem . If you neglect the teacher who neglects the children, the country cannot develop. So, we make sure, to safeguard the future of the country, we have to safeguard the welfare of the teacher so that he can also safeguard and make sure he develops the future generation that can take care of the country. In Nigeria, we have been making a lot of effort,” he said.
He commended the Teacher Development unit for organising the training for the teachers describing it as a strategy that really works to ensure quality education.
Meanwhile, the 30 School Support Officers, SSOs selected from across the local government areas were trained to conduct support to teachers handling the core subjects of Mathematics, English and Science to improve the performance of the students.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, Yusuf Kabir, said the state government has approved the replacement of retired teachers in the state every three months.
He also said to address overcrowded classrooms and decongestion, the state government has approved construction of four classrooms in each local government area while it put in place committees per local government to enable them assess performance to ensure a conducive environment for teaching and learning.
_Vanguard
