Ex-Minister Attributes 158,391 Unqualified Teachers In Nigeria To Low Salary, Others

L-R: DVC, Academic, LASU, Prof. Olumuyiwa Noah, Ex-Minister of Education,Prof. Ruqqayyat Rufai and Husband

***Makes Case For Teaching Practice Extension To One Year

By LOVETH AZODO, Lagos

Former Minister of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufia has attributed the presence of 158,391 unqualified teachers in Nigeria mainly to the unattractiveness of teachers incentives and interference of politians in the employment of teachers.

The first female professor, North West Nigeria Prof. Rufia called on the federal government to extend the teaching practice for teachers to a whole year adding that it will aid their preparation and effectiveness.

The Ex-Education Minister made this disclosure, Tuesday at the 2019 Faculty of Education Annual Distinguish Lecture Series, Lagos State University, Theme: Teacher Preparation For Nigerian Schools: Adequacy, Effectiveness and Impact, held at the university’s premise.

Citing Aluko (2018), she stated “the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria believes that Nigeria has only 2 million teachers. It said that the country as a result, will need some 250,000 qualified teachers per year in the next few years. This is due to the large size of the population as well as the high number of out-of-school children which is estimated at over thirteen million.”

“These require teachers to support their education needs. Ojo (2018) points out that the limited number of enrolment in Teacher Education Programmes threatens the production of quality teachers.”

Giving a break down of the figure, Prof. Rufia who delivered the lecture said “At the Primary level, out of 243,276 teachers, only 162,909 are qualified. For junior secondary schools, of the 92,769, only 67,037 are qualified. At the Senior Secondary School level, of the 117,651 teachers, just slightly above 50% – 65,357 are qualified.”

“Many of the problems we are facing in the educational sector are caused by teachers who don’t aquire any form of qualification, teaching is not as simple as it is portrayed, there are skills you need to learn before you efficiently teach in the classroom” she lamented.

According to Prof. Rufia, the success of the education sector is dependent on teacher adequacy. “These teachers must be qualified and have the capacity to communicate the curriculum and properly guide pupils in the procesfor the future.

Speaking on curriculum, she said that the curriculum is the foundation of the education process so that the success or failure of the education system depends on the efficient implementation of the Curriculum. “In the light of this, the design and implementation of Teacher Education Curriculum in Nigeria is essential to meeting National Education Objectives.”

Highlighting the challenges of teachers education in Nigeria, she said “the key challenges of teacher education in the country include Poor Political Will, Inadequate Funding, Poor Infrastructure, Lack of effective incentives for teachers, Unqualified Teachers, Short Term Teaching practice

She called on the federal government to extend the teaching practice to one year and also make available, Special Salary Schemes, housing and transport loan as added incentives in order to make the profession more attractive thereby increasing the number of qualified teachers in Nigeria.

Also Speaking, Dean of Education, Professor Yemi Ambrose Akinkuotu stated that it is reasonable that only teachers who are epistemologically equipped, pedagogically motivated and who have mastery of the subject matter that can be effective in the classroom.

“Teaching occurs when there is the teacher, the learner is available, there is content to be taught, there is the method to be used in teaching and there are intention to teach on the part of the teacher and intention to learn on the part of the learner” he said.