The move by the United Kingdom (UK) to recruit teachers from Nigeria and other countries in the Commonwealth will expectedly lead to mass exodus of teachers from Nigeria to that country beginning from February 2023. Under the initiative, the education authorities of the UK will recruit teachers from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Singapore and Ukraine with equivalent qualifications to their British counterparts with at least one year teaching experience.
While the development will enable Nigerian teachers join other Nigerian professionals who are trooping abroad in search of greener pastures, it is likely to worsen the brain drain in the beleaguered sector and stifle the socio-economic development of the country. About 350,000 Nigerian teachers out of a pool of 1.5 million teachers across the country are reportedly qualified for the UK job.
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) says that teachers certificated and assessed qualified by the TRCN will be exempted from sitting for qualifying examination with the UK’s Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA). Under the arrangement, those in this category will be given Qualified Teaching Status (QTS) in England. The QTS is England’s equivalent of Nigeria’s teaching licence issued by the TRCN.
With the seeming neglect of the teaching profession by the government, the recruitment will encourage mass migration of teachers from Nigeria to UK and to some other countries that might need them. The interest shown by UK in Nigerian teachers is a positive development. However, the government needs to check the trend because of losing our best talents to other nations.
It is sad that Nigeria is already grappling with the brain drain in the health sector with the massive migration of Nigerian doctors to Europe, United States and Canada. The looming exodus of Nigerian teachers would further accentuate the underdevelopment of the country. That is why the government must do something urgently to overhaul the education sector and return teaching to its former prestigious position.
The Nigerian education sector is challenged by many factors ranging from government’s neglect, inadequate welfare scheme, discouraging work environment and insecurity. In its theme for the 2022 World Teachers’ Day, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) rightly stated that “education is key for achieving the global goals and teachers are key for achieving inclusive, quality education and a better future for all.” In spite of this advice, the Federal Government is yet to give education the attention it deserves.
Nigeria is yet to allocate 26 per cent of its national budget to the education sector as suggested by some experts. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) recently decried the non-implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage as well as the inability of the Federal Government to implement the new teachers’ special salary scale, promised by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
Teachers have also become victims of the rising insecurity in some parts of the country. Not less than 10 teachers were reportedly killed and over 50 kidnapped by terrorists in 2022 in Kaduna State. Teachers in some primary and secondary schools across the states, especially in the rural areas, do not have adequate equipment for their work. Many are owed backlog of salaries in some states.
At the tertiary sector, the situation is not so impressive. The university system has witnessed many disruptions in recent time, the last being the eight-month strike by university teachers. The issues that caused the industrial action, including inadequate staff welfare, poor funding of the varsities and others, are yet to be fully resolved. The teachers may therefore search for greener pastures elsewhere.
We call on the government to wake up and prioritise the welfare of Nigerian teachers before the country loses them. Let the federal and state governments give the sector the desired attention. There is need to pay the teachers a competitive salary and salvage the looming exodus of Nigerian teachers abroad.
Nigerian teachers ought to be given better treatment than what they are getting now. It is not in doubt that Nigerian teachers are good. The problem is that they are not adequately remunerated. For the government to retain our teachers, it must be willing to pay them competitive salary. As long as their work environment remains discouraging, they will be forced to leave.
Government should evolve right policies to halt the looming exodus of Nigerian teachers to UK. The exodus may hamper the development of education and other sectors in the foreseeable future. Education is very useful for any country’s development. Any country that neglects it will not witness the needed development.