Unbelievable

NIGERIA’s universal basic education system is short of 277,537 teachers. The National Personnel Audit launched last year by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, revealed this shortage in Abuja as part of its data collection on basic education in public and private schools across the country.

The report further stated that 135,319 teaching positions for early childhood, 139,777 for primary schools, and 2,446 for junior secondary schools are yet to be filled.

It revealed that out of 27.8 million pupils in primary schools, 22,384,755 are in public elementary schools while 5,504,632 are in private schools. While N173 billion has been released to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) since 2015, N34 billion has been released to states for teacher education.

UBEC’s executive secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, added that the commission would acquire full data on basic education for effective planning and management in 2020.

The revelation about shortage of almost 300,000 teachers for the national basic education, a  programme that has been on stream since 2004, should be depressing to children and parents, and other stakeholders, especially education planners and managers of primary and junior secondary schools.

We find it worrisome that for a national programme that is over 15 years of existence, children are still saddled with overcrowded classrooms on account of inadequate supply of teachers.

It is equally disturbing that states and local governments that have direct responsibility over provision of teachers seem unenthusiastic about primary education, even after revelations in 2017 and 2018 by the National Publicity Secretary of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Audu Amba, that apart from Gombe, Kaduna, Imo, Katsina, Kano, Lagos, Plateau and Sokoto states, 28 states have not employed teachers in the last four years.

During the same period, most states could not take advantage of UBEC funds because of failure to provide their own share of matching funds in a country where, until 1999, primary education was the sole responsibility of subnational governments.

It is a no brainer that the success of UBEC as a programme to provide free and functional literacy for every child between the age of six and 15 depends on the alertness and alacrity of governors and local government chairpersons.

Read Also: Nigeria short of 277,537 teachers, says UBEC

We call on state and local governments to, as a matter of urgency, address the problem of recruiting certified teachers for a level that is foundational to other levels of education.

It is one thing to complain about inadequate investment in education on the part of the Federal Government, but it is a worse problem for states to fail to use whatever fund is available in good time to solve or preempt problems for learners.

Primary school pupils need trained teachers to guide their learning and any tardiness in providing teachers is a waste of precious time and resources for building capacity for national development.

As belated as it may seem, the promise of UBEC’s executive secretary to acquire full data on primary education is welcome. In addition to acquiring “full data” the commission should give more attention to sharing such data with states and local governments, as well as the general public, soon after confirmation of such data. Such information sharing may help stakeholders to monitor problems that face the basic education sector before they fester.

It is not enough for UBEC to release N34 billion to states for teacher education. Such release ought to be monitored closely to ensure that teachers are hired when they are needed. In addition, it is not enough to hire trained teachers, it is also necessary for UBEC to establish conditions for continuing professional development or lifelong learning for teachers in the universal basic education system.