From: Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin-Kebbi
Of the 14,530 teachers employed by Kebbi State Government to teach in 1,796 Secondary schools across the 21 local government areas, 7,571 have been discovered to be unqualified.
Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Muhammadu Magawata Aliero, who disclosed this, on Wednesday, during a day education retreat for the ministry staff on education reform, said only 6,965 are professional teachers teaching 473,397 students in Secondary schools in the state.
In his paper presented before the traditional rulers and stakeholders, Aliero noted that from 1999 to dates, the expansion of schools in the state does not correspond with the expansion of school structures and number of qualified teachers.
“In Aliero local government, we have 31 primary schools with 10,036 learners, but has only 15 English qualified teachers,ten qualified science teachers and eight qualified mathematics teachers.
“This implies that, qualified teachers pupil ration of Aliero LGEA is 1.669 for English language, 1:1004 for Basic science and technology and 1:1254 for Mathematics.
“The situation is the same for all LGEA’s or worsen ,like Bagudo with only three qualified basic science teachers given a ration of 1:13,307,Mayama and Ngaski with two qualified teachers each in religious studies, with ratio of 1:6,260 and 1:5,735 respectively.
“The story is the same for mathematics in Gwandu with 13 qualified teachers or 1:1,412 and two qualified science teachers in Bunza with teacher /pupil ratio of 1:7,172,”.
The Commissioner added that state must embark on ” a teacher production and development programme immediately to rescue the collapsing system of education in Kebbi. ”