Oyo NUT deplores infrastructure, security gaps in public schools

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has urged governments at all levels to address the myriad challenges besetting public schools. 

Raji Oladimeji, the Oyo state chairman of the union, said this during an interview with NAN on Tuesday.

Oladimeji said a shortage of teachers in public schools has been affecting the quality of education nationwide.

He said although the Oyo state government in 2021 employed 5,000 teachers in secondary schools, it is still not enough.

Oladimeji said the problem has become more pronounced in primary schools than in secondary schools.

He stated that besides the shortage of teachers, insecurity is another problem inhibiting quality education.

The chairman said equipment provided by alumni associations, parent-teacher associations, churches, and NGOs are being carted away by hoodlums.

He said even statutory records were being taken away and the absence of these records would affect students and pupils in the future.

“Some schools lack illumination. We have wires, fans and other things being removed. This is affecting the technological equipment being supplied to schools such as generators, computers, and the internet,” he said.

“If we do not have power supply or generator, how do we work with some of these technological materials that could be useful for teaching and learning in our schools?

“Another thing which is not also limited to Oyo state is the shortage of instructional materials in some of our schools.

“Apart from this, we need to expose our teachers to modern-day technology because of pedagogical experiences so that they will be able to approach some of these things.”

Oladimeji said the lack of real remuneration for teachers has been a setback for quality education in Nigeria.

He added that some staffers in public schools collect remuneration in percentages, discouraging potential teachers.

The federal government’s Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds public primary education in Nigeria while also supporting the country’s Universal Basic Education Programme up to junior secondary school.