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Unfit Nigerian teachers
By Sun News Publishing
Friday, May 2, 2008
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor
Nuhu Yaqub, rightly hit the nail on the head when he recently
observed that most Nigerian teachers are unsuitable to be
called teachers. Yaqub pointed out that most of them lacked
the commitment and dedication which the job required.
Speaking at a lecture entitled: “The crisis of education
system in Nigeria,” organized by the Ahmadu Bello University
Alumni Association, Abuja branch, the university don noted
that the scenario has accounted for the declining standards
in the country’s education. He noted with nostalgia
that teachers in the olden days symbolized humility, dedication
and productivity. But regrettably, such class of teachers
was now few in the system.
According to him, “In the most important sense, the
teacher of today is hardly a teacher because by definition,
they are not as knowledgeable as they are expected. They cannot
transmit knowledge as they ought to.” Yaqub expressed
some resentment against today’s teachers.
His angst is that a lot of those coming into the classroom
actually do so most probably because they had no other vocation
or job to go to. Some of these people used the teaching profession
as a stepping-stone to another vocation hence at every slight
opportunity, the modern teacher would embark on strike or
work-to-rule. He even sells handouts and worthless books hurriedly
written either to earn promotion or to cash on the paucity
of reading materials to exploit students. And this compromises
the integrity of the profession.
Besides these oddities the once noble profession has been
saddled with, some teachers sleep with students with reckless
abandon. They equally extort money and a lot of other goodies
from the hapless pupils and students. What Yaqup has enumerated
about the monumental crisis in the nation’s education
system is essentially correct and a true reflection of the
low level our values have degenerated to.
There is no doubt whatsoever that these lapses in the nation’s
education system account heavily for the deplorable conditions
and declining standards in the country’s education.
For instance, in 2007, the Federal Ministry of Education declared
that 56,294 secondary school teachers out of a total population
of 208,497 secondary school teachers in the country were not
qualified to teach at all. And on the occasion of the 2007
World Teachers’ Day, the United Nations alerted of the
impossibility of meeting the goal of providing quality education
for all children by the year 2015 without engaging an additional
18 million new teachers worldwide. Out of this, Africa needed
four million alone.
The world body observed that the growing shortage of qualified
teachers is the main challenge to the realization of international
education targets, especially the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
Part of the blame for the rot in the nation’s education
should go to the administrators who forgo meritocracy in the
recruitment and promotion of teachers. Over time, the evaluating
system has been largely compromised on the altar of ethnicity
or other mundane considerations.
Today, the emphasis has tilted towards quantity instead of
quality. There is therefore the need for a comprehensive review
of how teachers are recruited.
If this ugly trend is to be reversed, we should insist on
merit in all matters of recruitment in all levels of our education
enterprise. A situation where merit is jettisoned in preference
for nepotism does not really augur well for the education
system.
The government should make teaching attractive for brilliant
graduates by continually improving the working conditions
and wages of teachers in the country. The dearth of qualified
and dedicated teachers in practically all levels of the education
ladder might not be unconnected to the seeming disparity in
the wage structure of teachers and other professions, which
attract higher pay and better social status. Everything must
be put in place to enhance teachers’ pay and prestige.
The government should pay serious attention to teacher education
and if possible offer some attractive incentives like bursaries
and scholarships in a bid to make brilliant students to take
to teaching. The fortunes of our education would continue
to witness a downward slide except these anomalies are redressed
quickly.
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