The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Education

  • Foundation supports educations development

    Youris Olatunji Bashorun Education Foundation, (YOBEF), has declared its support for the promotion of quality education for Nigerians.

    The foundation as part of its support, has consecutively held the annual quiz competition for selected schools across the six education districts in Lagos State.

    Speaking at the grand finale of this year’s competition held at Isolo area of the State, Mr. Yakub Bashorun a son of late Olatunji Bashorun with whom the Foundation was named after, said the initiative has over the years produced awardees whose academic performances remained reference points among their peers.

    Bashorun who is Lagos State Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, provides scholarship awards to indigent students from the Isolo local government.

    He expressed the belief that if relevant stakeholders identify with the education sector, such support would inspire students for improved academic performance and healthy rivalry.

    Bashorun further said YOBEF has also decided to expand its scope to accommodate sponsorship of result-oriented school teachers to pursue post graduate degrees.

    He urged participants at the competition to leverage on the opportunity to strive for the best in their academic pursuit.

     

  • Ondo education summit soon, says Akeredolu

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has reiterated his determination to organise a summit on education.

    He spoke in Akure,the state capital, while playing host to the management and members of the Governing Council of the Adekunle Ajasin University(AAU)Akungba-Akoko led by its Chairman,Otunba Solomon Oladunni.

    Akeredolu,who expressed appreciation for the rapid transformation going on in the university, pledged to support the trend of development in the institution.

    Oladunni rejoiced with Akeredolu on his inauguration as the sixth executive governor in the state, urging the government to intervene in the institution’s financial constraints.

    Oladunni who reeled out the various challenges confronting AAUA, appealed passionately to the governor to intervene.

    He said: “As you are aware, AAUA is presently a leading state university in Nigeria, and it is not resting on its oars. But there are a number of challenges that are confronting the university.

    “Prominent among these is finance; though it is common knowledge that the nation’s economy is in distress, we are appealing passionately to you to kindly intervene in resolving these challenges so that the university can continue to soar”.

    The institution’s Vice Chancellor Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, said Akeredolu’s pedigree and credentials speak volumes of what he can do in his new capacity as the chief executive officer of the state.

    He added that the university was ready to key into the development programmes of the  Akeredolu-led government.

    His words: “We are not unaware of your achievements in the previous leadership capacities that you held in the past.

    “We are prepared to key seamlessly into the development programmes and plans of your government. We pray that God will abide with you in your earnest pursuit to take the state to the next level.”

     

  • Education key, says commander

    The Commander, 32 Artillery Brigade, Brig. Gen. Charles Ofoche, has advised parents of Command Day Secondary School, Owena Cantonment, to take the education of their wards seriously.

    Gen Ofoche spoke during the school’s inter-house sports competition at Owena Cantonment, Akure.

    The competition was among Fly Horse House representing the 1 Division in Kaduna, Tiger House representing 2 Division in Ibadan , Rhino House representing 2 Armoured Division in Jos and Palm House representing the 81 Division in Lagos.

    The pupils competed in march past and track events including: 100m junior boys and girls, 100m senior boys and girls, blind fold race boy, 200M boys and girls, 4x100m boys and girls, sack race, 400m boys and girls, parents race male and female, teachers race male and female, egg race and thread and needle race.

    Fly Horse House came first overall and in the march past. Tiger House came second and Rhino third. Gen Ofoche said: “Parents’ support will surely bring sound education for their children as sound education is the bed rock of life”.

  • Imperative of free public education, recession or no recession (2)

    The teaching profession is now much more complex than it was before the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War.

    In the first part of this article last week, we concluded that John Tosho’s verdict that provision of free and compulsory public education is one of the constitutional duties of governments could not have come at a better time. For far too long, many states had paid inadequate attention to provision of free education, just as many parents, particularly in the northern part of the country had hidden under the excuse that nobody could sanction them for not sending their children and wards to school. These attitudes had made it easy for children of school age to work as street traders in urban areas, instead of being in the classroom as should have been the case in a country that seeks to join the world of development. The outcomes have been existence in the 21st century of millions of totally illiterate children and, perhaps, of more millions without functional literacy in states where free education was provided half-heartedly by governments that could not politically afford not to provide free education but could get away with not enforcing compulsory education. The overall effect of decades of half-hearted free education has been under-preparation of young people for the challenges of living in the 21st century. Today’s column is about what needs to be done by governments and parents to ensure that investment in free and compulsory public primary education bring required benefits to the country.

    As important to citizens as ability to read and write is as one of the outcomes of public education, focus today will not be just on literacy per se but on functional literacy. When the Emir of Kano at a lecture at Oxford University recently raised the importance of literacy of millions of Nigerians in Arabic language, he was concerned with literacy per se, as ability to read and write in any language. But there is no doubt that literacy in Arabic in a country that conducts its life in Arabic is more functional than literacy in Arabic by someone who lives in a country where Arabic is not the lingua franca and only serves the purpose of religious education. While millions of Nigerians who can read and write Arabic  are theoretically literate, in functional terms, they may not be literate in Nigeria where the language of governance and business is English. Such people will, however, increase the number of literate men and women in northern Nigeria if the country adds Arabic to its official language or if any state in Nigeria declares Arabic as one of its official languages, the way English and Hausa are today in most states in the north and English and Yoruba are in the Southwest. But this is a digression that is handy to illustrate the difference between literacy qua literacy and functional literacy, i.e. form of basic education that, according to UNESCO, “stresses the acquisition of appropriate verbal, cognitive, and computational skills to accomplish practical ends in culturally specific settings.”

    Now that more parents will send their children to school to avoid being sanctioned for violating the constitution of the land, governments’ funding of education has to respond to UNESCO’s recommendation of percentage of budget required for developing countries. threshold for developing countries. School enrollment should be expected to rise by at least 25%, thus requiring more teachers, more classrooms, furniture, mouths to feed at lunchtime, and modern teaching/learning tools. Governments need to ensure that the learning environment is modern and pleasing to behold by teachers and learners. All public schools need to be conducive to learning. Using recession as excuse for not increasing allocations to primary education may no longer be good enough to explain why children of school age are vendors of local and imported or pirated commodities along highways.

    With respect to appropriate pedagogy, rote learning may no longer be useful for the new global civilisation of creative and critical use of information. Interactive, dialogical learning requires more capital-intensive teaching tools than blackboard and chalk. It requires, as has been demonstrated in more advanced countries, supply of technology-assisted teaching/learning tools, something that cannot be optimised without guaranteed access to electricity. It is risky to wait for the megawatts that had been on the list of government’s to-do programmes from Obasanjo to Buhari. There is thus a need for solar-powered schools and solar-powered laptops for students and teachers.

    Furthermore, curriculum planning requires new thinking. Apart from teaching of English and mathematics, other subjects offered should emphasise local issues: geography, history, natural science, and civics. The language of instruction in the first six years of schooling should be in children’s mother tongues while the language that holds the country together, English, is taught as a subject at every term in the six years of primary education. Mathematics must also be taught at every stage. Any state that desires to add Arabic to its curriculum may do this as optional language for students while states that share borders with Francophone countries and believe that French will be an enhancer of multicultural literacy may add French to their curriculum in the last year of primary school.

    Like everything else in life, excuses for not doing the right thing do not lead to positive transformation of any aspect of life. In general, our country and many northern states had given avalanche of excuses for not giving adequate attention to public education. This is despite governments’ preference to ignore evidence of outlandish consumption of public resources by political officers and top bureaucrats. We cannot ignore the fact that the rest of the world is leaving Nigeria behind, faster than it did at Independence and in spite of Nigeria’s great wealth from petroleum for decades. It is in recognition of the yawning gap between Nigeria and other countries that parents and politicians with deep pockets in our country send their children overseas for education.

    One level of education that has been ignored, even in states with over half-a-century of free education, is pre-school education. At present, this is being provided by entrepreneurs, who understandably make pre-school learning prohibitive for the average citizen. Given research findings that pre-school education is a major cognitive and social enhancer for children between 3 and 5 years of age, it is necessary for states to commit to providing access to pre-school learning to citizens. All advanced countries are already doing this, to remain competitive in a global market.

    Finally, regulation of private schools must be an important part of the functions of governments, especially local government. Most successful countries have moved away from the philosophy of education, curriculum, and pedagogy bequeathed by colonial governments. The teaching profession is now much more complex than it was before the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War. It is about time that National Certificate in Education was replaced by four-year degree programme in education. Our policymakers in the ministry of education may need to visit Scotland, Finland, South Korea, and Singapore, to find out why these places are global leaders in primary and secondary education.

  • Education, imperative of free public education, recession or no recession (1)

     If educating a future generation is the only investment that the governments can make at this critical time, it is worth the pain. 

    Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children—International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
    By the combined effect of section 18(3)(a) of the 1999 Constitution and section 2 (1) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, 2004, the right to free and compulsory primary education and free junior secondary education for all qualified Nigerian citizens are enforceable rights in Nigeria.—Justice John Tsoho

    Despite the pains of recession, educational value seems at the instance of progressive thinkers to be on the rebound in the country.

    A recent conference of northern governors, emirs, and elders in Kaduna accepted the inevitability of education as catalyst for development in the 21st century. At the meeting, the importance of education for all – male and female – was emphasised. Before that, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, had acted as agent of revolution in education when he made Basic Education free and compulsory in a state that was for decades synonymous with a laissez-faire approach to education for all. More recently, the Emir of Kano added his voice to calls for full commitment of northern governments to education, especially of the girl-child. He even pleaded that mosques should be made to perform its original function of mind building by adding the function of teaching secular subjects to the spiritual functions of the mosque.

    It is, therefore, salutary that John Tosho in the second epigraph above has, in a progressive jurisprudential stance, declared that it is the duty of governments in the country to provide public education up to the end of junior secondary, come rain or shine. Tosho’s judgment provides the most revolutionary view of public education in the country since the introduction of free primary education in Western Region of Nigeria in 1955. The three-day-old judgment not only confirms the justiciability of the education component of Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution; it also reaffirms the country’s obligation to fulfill expectations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In addition, it also asserts that there is no excuse for the country to fail to carry out this constitutional function, thus sending a clear message to the Buhari government, which had also pledged through the manifesto of his party to improve education, to resist any pundits that preach caution on funding education at a time of recession.

    Tosho’s judgment will have reverberations all over Nigeria. It is not just a judgment to warn the federal government to provide funds for free education for nine years of primary and junior secondary education. It is also a judgment to wake states and local governments up to their responsibilities to citizens. In addition, the judgment also implies that education for citizens for the first nine years of schooling should be free and that parents have to see first nine years of education as compulsory. This is taking the first revolutionary act in Western Region in 1955 under the Action Group and the second such act in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria further into the social and economic demands of the 21st century.

    There are other implications for subnational governments. Even in regions that served as  pacesetters for free public education as citizen empowerment from the 1950s, primary education has not been made compulsory. The recent ruling should make it obvious to states with free but not compulsory basic education that time is ripe for states to proclaim and enforce compulsory and free education. In the last four decades, public education has taken a back seat as private primary and secondary schools grew in enrollment and ‘prestige’. Even citizens who became members of the nation’s middle class from benefiting from public education chose to look away when public education was neglected.  They  enrolled (and still do) their children in private schools that are hardly regulated by the state. The result has been poor public education and seemingly better private schools with trappings of good looks and underpaid and under-prepared teachers but with little regulation from governments.

    Parents’ seeming abandonment of the rights to public education by their children and wards as they gravitate towards private schools has diminished citizens’ consciousness of what the governments’ responsibilities are towards them. Years of profligacy made possible by revenue from petroleum have also encouraged subnational governments to be lukewarm about functions that government leaders at the regional and local levels in the past performed as an act of faith and with gusto.

    Taking advantage of the non-justiciability of provision of free education in the 1999 Constitution for years, many states that were on the list of educationally-disadvantaged states in the country in the 1980s remain so, even about two decades into the new century. For example, states characterised as educationally backward in the South-south, particularly what later became Rivers, Bayelsa, and the only one in the Southwest, Lagos, grew out of the list of educationally backward states, largely through efforts of progressive governments in those states. The Tosho Judgement leaves no hiding place for states that relish in denying their citizens of their social and cultural rights.

    This column heartily congratulates the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), for its court action against the Federal Ministry of Education and the Attorney General of the Federation, in which it asked the court to determine whether by the combined effect of Section 18(3)(a) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 2 (1) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, (UBE) 2004, the right to free and compulsory primary education and free junior secondary education for all qualified Nigerian citizens are enforceable rights in Nigeria. Without doubt, LEDAP’s foresight and insight that spawned the suit and the pro-human rights disposition of the judge are bound to change the direction of basic and functional education in Africa’s most populous country.

    Current or future recession cannot be a credible excuse for tampering with social rights of citizens. Even if all the revenue that accrues to the country is just whatever comes from petroleum, there still will be no reason not to provide free basic education in all states of the country. If educating a future generation is the only investment that the governments can make at this critical time, it is worth the pain. There is no sense to having 36 bureaucracies that cannot provide free basic education programme, not after the experience of free education before discovery of petroleum.  Making free education compulsory will also encourage cultural leaders, hitherto indifferent about education for all citizens, to pluck the political and cultural will needed for laying the foundation for a better future for citizens.

    For now, the Tosho Verdict signals the need for a new thinking about public education, especially at a time that the country is blessed with a government that says in its contract with citizens that education is crucial to the survival of the country in a global ethos that is universally acclaimed as the Knowledge Society. This judgment promises to be seminal to extending the nation’s education discourse to the importance of providing citizens with an education that can make them competitive in the modern world.

    • To be continued

     

     

  • ‘New JAMB policy is unacceptable’

    Stakeholders in the Education sector on Thursday in Ibadan, said the scrapping of   `Awaiting Result’ by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. (JAMB) was unacceptable and not right.

    They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the policy was not suitable and would truncate arrangements already in place.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that JAMB had on Feb. 28, announced that students would no longer be able to secure admission, while awaiting their `O’ level results.

    Prof. Andy Fadoju of the Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, University of Ibadan, said it was unfortunate that the most-abused sector in Nigeria was the education sector.

    “That is why you find all this unstable policies because in an ideal setting, you expect to see a round peg in the right hole,’’ Fadoju said.

    According to Fadoju, there should be a smooth transition from the secondary education to the tertiary and I do not see anything wrong in that.

    He said that scrapping `Awaiting Result’ would affect the morale of candidates and it might also lead to youthful exuberance.

    “You know, most children nowadays are not patient. Their age of maturity is different and they always want to move on with the knowledge they have acquired.

    “So once there is a break for them, there is the tendency that this could lead to youthful exuberance and may also cause problems for the society,’’ he said.

    Fadoju said that as an educationist, he was not in support of the new policy as announced by JAMB.

    Mr Muyiwa Bamgbose, Executive Director, Educational Advancement Centre, Ibadan, said that there should be adequate provision by government to review strategic plans in the education sector.

    He said that though the Board (JAMB) had been clamouring for priority of old candidates over the new ones, proper and well-thought out plans must be taken and should be long term planning.

    Bamgbose, however, urged the government to give adequate attention to `A’ level education in the country, adding that right now, only 10 per cent attention was being given to `A’ level candidates in terms of for admission.

    Other parents who spoke with NAN described the new policy as “unfortunate and uncalled for’’.

    Mr Olabiyi Orekoya, said he was not surprised with the announcement.

    Orekoya  said that the Board was only looking for ways of reducing the number of candidates seeking admission into tertiary institution.

    “I really do not know what is wrong with our educational system. We continue to be at the back stage due to policies that are not sustainable,’’ he said.

    Some students who spoke with NAN said that, though, JAMB had the right to bring policies from time to time but the scrapping of `Awaiting Result’ by candidates was not right.

    Mr Stephen Ogunronbi, a part four student in the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, said he would have waited for one year if it was now because he was admitted while awaiting his result.

    “I would have waited for one year if now, due to this new policy,’’ Ogunronbi said.

    He, however, said that the policy had more disadvantages than advantages.

  • Reps Committee lauds CBN’s support for education

    Reps Committee lauds CBN’s support for education

    The House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency members has praised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention projects in the educational sector.

    The committee members, who spoke at the end of oversight visit to CBN’s projects in Lagos State, said the projects being executed by the apex bank would add value to Nigeria’s economic development.

    The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Jones Onyereri, warned the contractors to stick to the specifications and timelines of the projects as contained in their contracts as the Committee would not accept any deviation from the contractual agreements nor agree to any variation to the contract sums.

    The oversight visit was in furtherance of the Committee’s constitutional responsibility and legislative mandate of supervising agencies of government under its purview.

    The intervention project sites visited by the Committee included the three blocks of two and three-storey hostel buildings and an adjourning 500-seater auditorium at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Topo, Badagry and the multi-complex faculty hotel and auditorium facilities at the University of Lagos, Centre of Excellence.  The facilities are part of the CBN’s commitment to building capacity for the nation’s banking industry.

  • ‘Catholic education must promote critical thinking’

    The National Association of Catholic Diocesan Directors/Secretaries of Education (NACDDED), says Catholic education must be at the forefront of expunging radicalism via critical thinking and not unthinking defence of God.”

    National Chairman of the association Rev Fr. Richard Omolade, who stated this during their NACDDED national conference in Calabar, Cross River State capital, said in an age of religious bigotry and fanaticism, Catholic education must be seen to be truly holistic, producing not just religious thinkers, but also scientists who are able to contribute to human development.

    The three-day event which had as its theme: ‘Catholic education: Yesterday, today and tomorrow – The way forward’, was hosted by the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Calabar Archdiocese, Most Rev. Joseph Ekuwem.

    The association said Catholic education must also strive to preserve her identity as a faith-based educational enterprise.

    Members frowned at government policies that tend to lump everybody together, demanding a uniformity, which they said precludes creativity and uniqueness.

    “Catholic education today must be structured as to prepare people not just for now, but the future. Critical thinking skills must be an intergral part of that education such that our students are helped to think critically so that problems can be solved in their unique varieties, instead of parroting answer fashioned by teachers.

    “Catholic education must bequeath to the world a civilisation of love, not just of certificate. It must focus on the promotion of a culture of life as against the current culture of death, in a world riddled by war, waste and destruction,” he said.

    An 11-point communiqué at the end of the conference, condemned the role of the ministry of education in some states which attempt to compel Catholic schools into Membership of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools/Association of Private Schools Owners of Nigeria (NAPPS/APSON). NACDDED says Catholic schools are voluntary agency schools, and should therefore be recognised as such.

    They however, appreciated the efforts of some state governments in ensuring the formulation and implementation of good educational policies, and encouraged other states to do the same.

    The association also resolved that Catholic schools should continue to ensure provision, training and retraining of staff to meet the required standard of education, as well as continue to improve on the provision and maintenance of relevant infrastructure.

  • Taraba teachers’ summit to improve education

    Worried by the poor output of schools, the senator representing Southern Taraba in the National Assembly, Emmanuel Bwacha, has organised a summit for public and private secondary school teachers in the state to share ideas and proffer solution.

    Flagging the event in Wukari at the weekend, Senator Bwacha said with Taraba now having three universities and many polytechnics and colleges of education, there was need to prepare qualified candidates for these institutions.

    Bwacha noted with concern, “the falling standard of education  in Nigeria,” adding that the situation was worse in Taraba State where graduates cannot compete favourably with their mates elsewhere.

    He attributed the problem to the emphasis placed on paper qualification rather than skills acquisition.

    “I met a lawyer and was wondering how he can go to court and win a legal case –he couldn’t defend his LLB.

    “If you have eight credits in your SSCE, and you pass Government, for example, you should be able to answer elementary questions on the three arms of government.

    “We shall begin to look at areas of legislation; we shall check whether that certificate you are holding is truly yours; if not yours, we shall ask you to give way for the qualified person –who can defend his certificate.

    “We are in a dilemma and this summit will assist the government in no small measure in fixing the problem,” Bwacha said.

    According to the convener, Emmanuel Ba’aku Attah, the summit aimed specifically at “improving performance in post primary school external examinations, such as WASSCE, NECO, NABTEB and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in the southern district of Taraba.”

    Six papers were presented by scholarly resource persons, mostly university lecturers.

    They agreed that the teacher plays a crucial role in driving education to the next level and should be blamed for failures.

    In his paper on “Ethical Standards and Professionalism in Teaching: The Nexus,” Dr. Amuche Chris recommended among other things, that entry into the teaching profession be regulated by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN); all unethical behaviours from teachers be discouraged; and government should train teachers regularly.

    On his part, Dr. Solomon Iyekekpolor, said there must be an “attitudinal change” by all the stakeholders: proprietors, teachers, and government educational authorities, managers of secondary schools, students and parents.

    “A doctor makes a mistake and a patient dies; an engineer makes a mistake and a bridge or building collapses; but a teacher makes a mistake and a whole generation is put in danger.

    “Their (teachers) pay is low and not given as and when due. The teachers’ reward may be in heaven as often said, but he needs a living allowance down here to survive to discharge his responsibilities. But teachers also, more often than not, hide under various guises to perpetrate truancy and many forms of vices contrary to the ethics of the teaching profession. The attitude must change.”

    Another resource person, Simon Bala Manga, stressed the importance of guidance and counseling as it affects performance of secondary school pupils.

    He said: “Much damage has been done to our children who graduate from schools without proper direction. A large number of secondary school graduates seeking admission into our universities have been disappointed because they were not guided and counseled.”

    Other papers were presented on ‘The Role of Proprietors and the Managers of Secondary Schools Towards Quality Assurance’ and ‘Result Oriented Management of Post Primary Educational Institutions,’ by Ige John Sayo.

  • Ganduje seeks communal involvement in education

    Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has urged individuals and private organisations to support government’s effort in the education sector.

    Ganduje stated this in an interview with reporters in his office shortly after inspecting new class rooms and instructional materials donated to primary and secondary schools by corporate organisations. It was part of events marking the Kano Basic Education Week.

    According to him, the large population of pupils in the state has become a major challenge, which needs the support of private organisations and active community involvement in providing basic education.

    “Let me start with one challenge first before we can start saying the legacy which we’ll leave behind. First of all, what I have been saying is if we have a large population, there will be problem, because in education, even the basic aspect of production in infrastructural facilities, education is the first victim when the population is large because we will have to provide for every child and it has to be sustained.

    “So in basic education, what we observe is that government will not be able to do it alone, and therefore, there is one segment that needs to be considered, which is community participation in education.

    “ If you observe, we have the highest number of primary school pupils. Apart from education, it is because not most people are interested in investing in education; that is why we have the volume like that.

    He added: “Education is so voluminous; sometimes you become confused on where to start. I think in anything you want to do, you first of all start with foundation. That is why we are putting emphasis on basic education to ensure that we get it right. To help as many children as possible in the school to reduce the ones outside the school and to also invite private-people and organisations that will undertake corporate social responsibility in education.

    “We believe if this concept is embraced by members of the public that would be a huge achievement. I think we are succeeding. We have Education Trust Fund, which we are about to launch so that we can get the right people to legally operate on this concept and system, and that is why we are designating the whole week in the activities on the Basic Education week. We are going to start with the stakeholders to know their problems, even though the problems are many.

    “As I told you, we even picked the teachers because they are the nucleus of progress as far as educational system is concerned. If their minds are not at rest, they will teach absent minded.

    “Time is gone where everybody will want to be a teacher. You see, the tradition is that anybody that is looking for job, the first thing that comes to his mind is for them to be teachers, but the state government is mindful of that because we are not looking for everybody to teach, but qualified teachers.”