THE outlook for basic education in Nigeria is alarming, compounded by the shortage of teachers in the states. As the foundation of the country’s education architecture, issues at the primary level have far-reaching impacts on the secondary and tertiary levels and the overall human capital development in the country. State governors must take up the gauntlet by auditing, employing, and training teachers while creating an enabling environment for teaching and learning.
This gained credence again recently after Hamid Bobboyi, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, decried that Nigeria lacked 194,867 qualified teachers and 1.1 million classrooms. Of the 694,078 primary school teachers required, there are only 499,2022. Bobboyi lamented that the shortfall of teachers contributes to learning poverty, as states have failed to recruit new teachers or replace those who resigned or retired.
Despite interventions by the Federal Government through UBEC, including funding for teacher training, facilities, and counterpart funding for infrastructure, the problems persist.
UBEC says 40 per cent of classrooms in the basic education category are in unpalatable conditions. Many pupils in public schools learn under harsh conditions, as the classroom roofs and windows have either been stolen or removed by the elements. They sit on the bare floor to learn and grapple with the presence of grazing cattle and faeces. The schools lack toilets, libraries, and computers.
Although the rampant insecurity across the country sabotages education, the lack of an enabling learning environment has also adversely affected enrolment. Nigeria has 20.1 million out-of-school children, the second largest in the world behind India’s, per UNESCO.
The shortfall of teachers is glaring, breeding deficiencies and frustration in schools. While the national policy prescribes a teacher-student ratio of 1:35, the ratio is 1:124 in the North-East.
According to a World Bank report, teacher absenteeism causes a 13.7 per cent loss in public expenditure. The Human Capital Public Expenditure and Institutional Review on Nigeria revealed that 19.1 per cent of teachers who are present in school are not in classrooms. This reflects a lack of passion, as teachers spend less than three-quarters of their official hours on scheduled teaching.
Furthermore, teachers are demoralised by the absence of facilities, poor learning environments, lack of training and career advancement opportunities, and humiliatingly low wages.
The governors are culpable in this mess as they continue to underfund education in their states. Although basic education remains their statutory duty, many of them have refused to advance it by providing counterpart funding to access the UBEC funds. Only 16 of 36 states accessed N21 billion out of the N51.6 billion 2023 matching grant as of June. This translates to 41 per cent of the funds.
Many governors restricted the recruitment of civil servants, including teachers, thereby exacerbating the shortage of skilled teachers.
Urgently, more funding should be allocated to education, ensuring it reaches the intended beneficiaries, while school infrastructure should be improved to provide a favourable learning environment.
Teaching should be made an attractive profession with competitive wages, like in Finland, Germany, and South Korea. States should lift employment bans and recruit more teachers, while regular training and professional development should be prioritised.
Governors should embark on a comprehensive audit to determine the exact number of primary schools, the current state of the schools, and the required number of teachers to reposition education in their domains.
On a national scale, there is an urgent need for a robust revision of national policies to involve states and local governments in managing primary education effectively.