Over 50% Nigerian teachers are not qualified - FG

THE Federal Government has said over 50 per cent of teachers in primary and secondary schools in the country have no requisite skills and capacity to impact knowledge, a factor responsible for mass examination failures in recent times.

Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, said this in Kaduna, at the weekend, when she paid a visit to the new governor of Kaduna State, Mr Patrick Yakowa.

He was also in the state on a visit to the three parastatal agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education in the state, the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI); National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE).

Rufa’i, therefore, directed that teachers to be employed into the public schools must, in addition to their qualifications, sit for examinations before they could be employed.

This, according to the minister, would help to restore sanity to the education system and ensure that only qualified teachers, who had the requisite experience and skills, were employed to teach in all public schools.

“Nigeria has been having problem as far as quality of education is concerned. Of course, we are beginning to witness the issue of mass examination failure. That has very good relationship with the fact that we do not have quality teachers on the ground. Looking at the number of Nigerian teachers that we have, we have more than 50 per cent of them that are not qualified,” she said.

The minister said to correct the anomaly, “we are making it mandatory that for each teacher that will now be employed, either at the state or local government, or even at the federal level, it is required that they be examined.

“We have to examine them in a classroom setting, to ensure their reading skills, vis-a-vis their writing skills and then their comprehension.”

She commended the Kaduna State government for according priority to education and urged the new governor to sustain the efforts of his predecessor, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, in moving the education forward.