UBEC: Nigeria yet to attain 100% qualified teachers in primary schools

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)  says there are less than 100 percent qualified teachers in primary schools across the country.

Hamid Bobboyi, executive secretary of UBEC, spoke at the national conference on teacher professional development (TPD) on Monday in Abuja.

Bobboyi said the federal government has in the last 13 years, disbursed N57,165,751,416.12 to states for teachers’ professional development programmes.

But he lamented the commitment of state governments to enhance the capacity of teachers through training.

“The UBEC 2022 NPA reveals that 67.5 percent of teachers in public schools and 85.3 percent in private schools have not attended any in-service training in five years (2018-2022). This prevailing situation has implications for quality education delivery,” he said.

“The federal government, through UBEC, has contributed a total of N57,165,751,416.12 as assistance to the states for teacher professional development between 2009 and 2022.

“This is grossly inadequate to cover the training needs of the teachers. The states that are being assisted have come to depend largely on the federal government fund for their TPD, with little or no contribution. This is a major challenge in assuring quality learning outcomes at the basic education level.”

Bobboyi also decried the poor teacher-to-pupil ratio in Nigerian schools, adding that the trend affected the quality of education.

“The following data were returned from the UBEC 2022 national personnel audit of basic education institutions in the country. There were 177,027 basic education institutions with a total enrolment of 47,010,008, made up of 7,234,695 in ECCDE, 31,771,916 in primary schools and 8,003,397 in junior secondary schools,” he said.

“For teacher supply, there were 354,651 teachers/caregivers in the ECCDE centres, 915,593 in primary schools and 416,291 in junior secondary schools.

“The learner/pupil ratio varies from state to state, but none is within the recommended ratio. There are states where the learner/pupil ratio is as high as 1:100 pupils. Nigeria is yet to attain 100 percent qualified teachers in primary schools.

“It is sad to find that some of the people teaching in schools are holders of the first school leaving certificate, basic education certificate, senior secondary school certificate, associate certificate in education, diploma certificate.”

In his remark, Andrew David Adejo, permanent secretary at the federal ministry of education, said the government was committed to implementing programmes aimed at boosting learning outcomes in schools.