Teachers’ training seen driving Nigeria’s next generation

Nigeria needs to train its teachers to drive the next generation, according to experts.

Isaiah Ogundele, vice principal at Chrisland Schools, said for Nigeria to achieve sustainable development, teachers must be empowered.

“Teachers can be empowered by sponsoring them for national and international training or workshops for them to collaborate with their colleagues in other nations of the world,” he said.

He said educators should be given soft loans to help them meet their needs, stressing the need for good welfare packages.

“Good welfare educational packages like scholarships for their children both at the national and international level are important. Empowering them through ICT training and giving them tools like laptops at subsidised rates are critical too.”

Ogundele said that giving educators a good welfare package would boost their morale to do more even when they are tired.

Kingsley Moghalu, president of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation, said the country needs an education system that focuses on skills development.

Read also: Learning crisis persist as teachers shortage worsens in Nigeria

“Education must go beyond rote memorisation of facts to helping learners acquire various forms of skills that make them form a formidable human capital for the nation.

“Educated citizens must be skilled to be able to create individual livelihoods, community wealth, and national value chains and thus effectively contribute to the economic transformation and global competitiveness of the nation, especially in light of the 4th Industrial Revolution,” he said.

The World Bank and UNESCO reports show that a minimum of 20 percent of teachers in Nigeria’s public basic education institutions lack the necessary qualifications.

Hamid Bobboyi, executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), lamented the acute shortage of qualified teachers in public primary schools, which he said is contributing to learning poverty in basic education.

Bobboyi decried the fact that Nigeria as of June 2024 required 694,078 teachers at the primary school level, with only 499,202 available.

“As of 2022, 907,769 additional classrooms were required in primary schools, and 200,085 were required in junior secondary schools. All geo-political zones are above the standard ratios as specified by the National Policy on Education,” he noted.

Stanley Boroh, a lecturer at Federal University, Otuoke, said that poor remuneration and lack of educators’ welfare are fueling the dearth of teachers because it makes the profession unattractive to people.

“There is erosion in the quality of education because we have unqualified persons in the profession, and this can be attributed to several factors such as poor remuneration of teachers as such people that are qualified often lose interest,” he said.