Thousands of public
schools in the country suffer the scarcity of qualified teachers and the
problem is further exacerbated by the lack of ability and initiative to handle
the problem squarely. The situation is particularly chronic in rural areas
where in some schools there are reportedly between two and three teachers to
take care of the whole school.
The shortage of science and mathematics teachers and the rampant cases of teacher absenteeism in rural schools have reached crisis level. In the FCT for instance, there are rural schools with between two and four teachers while more and more teachers carry out ‘multi-grade’ teaching in order to keep the pupils busy.
The shortage of science and mathematics teachers and the rampant cases of teacher absenteeism in rural schools have reached crisis level. In the FCT for instance, there are rural schools with between two and four teachers while more and more teachers carry out ‘multi-grade’ teaching in order to keep the pupils busy.
 |
| President Muhammadu Buhari presents the 2016 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja on December 22, 2015 |
In the rush to
address the chronic shortage of teachers, President Muhammadu Buhari said while
presenting the 2016 Budget to the joint session of the National Assembly that a
total of 500,000 school teachers would be recruited and deployed to primary
schools.
The move will certainly bridge teacher-deficit gap but the project would be seemingly expensive for the government to sustain.
“We will also partner with states and local governments to recruit, train and deploy 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders. These graduate teachers will be deployed to primary schools,” the president said.
Days before the budget presentation, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) had said there were about 1.5 million registered teachers in the county. The assertions by the council suggested that thousands of teachers haven’t registered with it, and thus were not qualified to teach.
The government, however, is yet to determine how the teachers would be recruited and under which tier of government they should be placed. The name of the project hasn’t been ascertained, the amount of monies to be paid the teachers as salary is not known while the tier of government to shoulder the responsibility of paying salaries and allowances of the teachers was being debated.
Minister of State for Education Professor Anthony Anwuka recently inaugurated a committee on the recruitment and deployment of 500,000 teachers which include some officials of the ministry and heads of few agencies including Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), TRCN, National Teachers Institute (NTI) as well as National Commission of Colleges of Education (NCCE). The first term of reference for the committee was to find out how the teachers would be sourced and methods to be used in deploying them. Already, there are hundreds of thousands of graduate teachers as well as NCE holders in the country. There are also graduates who haven’t got teaching qualifications.
The minister said, “Is it possible to source the 500,000 teachers out of the already trained NCE and education graduates? Is it possible to source this number of teachers from the pool of already trained but unemployed NCE and graduate education teachers?”
One educationist in Abuja said all unemployed NCE and university graduates should be given a chance to apply for the vacancies “as long as they will undergo a comprehensive teacher training exercise.”
The committee, according to the minster, would also determine who owns the project between local, state and the federal governments as well as the salaries and sustainability of the project. A rough estimate of N50, 000 per teacher per month as salary which translated to about N300 billion per annum was suggested during the inauguration session, but with dwindling revenues, it would be difficult for the project to be sustained.
There were various suggestions on how the 500,000 teachers would be trained before they are deployed to schools.
A retired teacher in Abuja said the teachers should either be trained by a College of Education in each state and Abuja or the NTI. He however said whereas “the colleges may have the facility and manpower to train the recruits, the NTI hasn’t. In fact, NTI conducts classes in makeshift buildings that are overcrowded and without the necessary teaching facilities.”
He said it would be painless for the government to sustain the project if it will adequately cater for the wellbeing of the teachers and carry out appropriate supervisions as well as provide sufficient teaching and learning resources.
The minister said the findings and recommendations of the committee which was publicly inaugurated in Abuja, will settle on the sustainability or otherwise of the project. It will also recommend the number of teachers to be sent to each state. But there was no official data that gives the number of additional teachers needed in each state. The minister had to ask the committee “how will they be distributed to the states when they are recruited? Is it on equality of states? Or will it be based on justified needs of the states? What will be the role of the states in funding and supervision of the projects? How sustainable will the project be? Is it going to be a short term affair? Or is it going to be annual and continuous? What is the name of this project? Is it basic education cost? We must give it a name. Who owns the project?”
The move will certainly bridge teacher-deficit gap but the project would be seemingly expensive for the government to sustain.
“We will also partner with states and local governments to recruit, train and deploy 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders. These graduate teachers will be deployed to primary schools,” the president said.
Days before the budget presentation, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) had said there were about 1.5 million registered teachers in the county. The assertions by the council suggested that thousands of teachers haven’t registered with it, and thus were not qualified to teach.
The government, however, is yet to determine how the teachers would be recruited and under which tier of government they should be placed. The name of the project hasn’t been ascertained, the amount of monies to be paid the teachers as salary is not known while the tier of government to shoulder the responsibility of paying salaries and allowances of the teachers was being debated.
Minister of State for Education Professor Anthony Anwuka recently inaugurated a committee on the recruitment and deployment of 500,000 teachers which include some officials of the ministry and heads of few agencies including Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), TRCN, National Teachers Institute (NTI) as well as National Commission of Colleges of Education (NCCE). The first term of reference for the committee was to find out how the teachers would be sourced and methods to be used in deploying them. Already, there are hundreds of thousands of graduate teachers as well as NCE holders in the country. There are also graduates who haven’t got teaching qualifications.
The minister said, “Is it possible to source the 500,000 teachers out of the already trained NCE and education graduates? Is it possible to source this number of teachers from the pool of already trained but unemployed NCE and graduate education teachers?”
One educationist in Abuja said all unemployed NCE and university graduates should be given a chance to apply for the vacancies “as long as they will undergo a comprehensive teacher training exercise.”
The committee, according to the minster, would also determine who owns the project between local, state and the federal governments as well as the salaries and sustainability of the project. A rough estimate of N50, 000 per teacher per month as salary which translated to about N300 billion per annum was suggested during the inauguration session, but with dwindling revenues, it would be difficult for the project to be sustained.
There were various suggestions on how the 500,000 teachers would be trained before they are deployed to schools.
A retired teacher in Abuja said the teachers should either be trained by a College of Education in each state and Abuja or the NTI. He however said whereas “the colleges may have the facility and manpower to train the recruits, the NTI hasn’t. In fact, NTI conducts classes in makeshift buildings that are overcrowded and without the necessary teaching facilities.”
He said it would be painless for the government to sustain the project if it will adequately cater for the wellbeing of the teachers and carry out appropriate supervisions as well as provide sufficient teaching and learning resources.
The minister said the findings and recommendations of the committee which was publicly inaugurated in Abuja, will settle on the sustainability or otherwise of the project. It will also recommend the number of teachers to be sent to each state. But there was no official data that gives the number of additional teachers needed in each state. The minister had to ask the committee “how will they be distributed to the states when they are recruited? Is it on equality of states? Or will it be based on justified needs of the states? What will be the role of the states in funding and supervision of the projects? How sustainable will the project be? Is it going to be a short term affair? Or is it going to be annual and continuous? What is the name of this project? Is it basic education cost? We must give it a name. Who owns the project?”
SOURCE: DAILY TRUST NEWSPAPERS
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