The dismissal by the Kaduna State Government of 2,357 teachers from the state’s teaching service and the fallout return the vexed issue of unqualified teachers and the quality of instruction in Nigeria’s public primary and secondary schools to public discourse. For years, in many states, primary and secondary school teachers have failed competency tests, refused to sit for them, or been found to be unqualified and un-trainable. The states and local government councils, with federal support, should undertake radical reforms to remake the public education system.

Getting the right teachers in place should be the starting point. According to UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education, primary education provides students with fundamental skills in literacy “and establishes a solid foundation for learning and understanding core areas of knowledge and personal development, preparing for lower secondary education.” Teachers are essential to the system and getting enough of them and of the right quality are equally important.

Ostensibly aiming for this, the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board recently stated that it conducted a competency test for 27,662 teachers in December 2021.Its spokesperson, Hauwa Mohammed, said a total of 2,192 primary school teachers, including the National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Audu Amba, were thereafter dismissed for refusing to sit for the test; 165 others were also sacked for failing the test.

he PUNCH reported last month that no fewer than 9,392 teachers were sacked by some state governments between January 2020 and June 2022.In August 2020, Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, sacked 5,666 teachers.In October 2020, the Plateau State Government dismissed 122 teachers after discovering that they had presented fake certificates to secure employment.In May 2021, the Niger State Government, through the state’s Universal Basic Education Board, sacked a total of 20 teachers.

In December 2021, Kaduna State had sacked 233 teachers also for presenting fake certificates. In 2022, the newly elected governor of Anambra, Chukwuma Soludo, fired 1,000 teachers from the state’s teaching service. According to Soludo, the sacked teachers were “the affected PTA teachers who were converted to the school system in the last days of the last administration in irregular, hazy circumstances.”

The statistics of teachers sacked by the state governments over lack of qualifications among other reasons, no doubt reflects the depth of the crises bedeviling Nigeria’s public education sector.

Across the country, the public education system is constrained by poor funding, lack of, or dilapidated infrastructure, poor teaching aids, poor administration, and inadequate enrolment. The literacy level in the country remains low.In comparison; Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, and South Africa score 95 percent each, Sao Tome and Principe 92 percent, and Libya 91 percent.

One area states and LGs should immediately prioritise is getting enough teachers and ensuring their quality and competence, and conducting effective monitoring. UNESCO emphasises that “teachers are one of the most influential and powerful forces for equity, access and quality in education and key to sustainable global development.” Noting that “however, their training, recruitment, retention, status and working conditions remain preoccupying,” the global agency accords priority to the supply of well-trained, supported, and qualified teachers.

The quality of education depends largely on the competence of personnel in the teaching profession who must acquire mandatory knowledge and training to be qualified as a teacher. Certification of teachers is therefore a compelling obligation of the relevant statutory bodies; this way, the teaching profession would be made relevant to contemporary dynamics of knowledge impartation at different levels of education.

Worldwide, says UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics, 69 million teachers need to be recruited to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030. Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education Commission identifies a shortage of 280,000 of qualified teachers at the basic level. This is a huge gap.

The deficit reflects decades of neglect of the teaching profession and education generally in Nigeria. State governors should realise that basic education is critical for the development of any society, and investment in the quality of teachers should be at the core of development plans.

The National Council on Education in 2016 set December 31, 2019 as the deadline for teachers in Nigeria to be certified and registered as professionals with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria. The deadline was predicated on the assumption that individuals already engaged as teachers but with discrepancies in minimum requirements for qualification, would update their credentials and be eligible for registration.

Over two million teachers had been captured under the Teacher Information System by the end of 2019 with the expectation that only qualified teachers would thereafter be eligible to teach in public schools. But two years after the deadline, it is worrisome that Nigeria still parades many unqualified teachers in public and private schools. This should be corrected fast.

While those already in the system should be encouraged to be retrained and given reasonable time to obtain certification, the teaching profession should not be an all-comers affair; quacks, lazy, barely literate, and incompetent misfits should be flushed out.

Governors should be resolute in enforcing standards, monitoring and building a well-trained professional teaching cadre. The pay and welfare of teachers should be paramount. The practice of state governors owing teachers their salaries, allowances, gratuities, and pensions has to stop. The profession should be made attractive for career-oriented, motivated youths. It should no longer be a refuge for the indolent. While tertiary institutions graduates should be recruited on merit alongside education graduates, there should be a realistic grace period given for all to obtain professional certification to entrench professionalism.

Quality of teaching should be enhanced through regular training and re-training.Ensuring quality is good. Kaduna and other states should however not hide under this to victimise or witch-hunt activists. They should persuade and mobilise all stakeholders, including the NUT and Parent-Teacher Associations, for the task of creating an efficient educational system.

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