The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria has said that a survey carried out by the Federal Government revealed that 207,818 unqualified teachers were teaching in primary schools across the country.
The TRCN Registrar, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, said this on Wednesday while delivering a paper in Abuja to commemorate the World Teachers Day celebration.
Ajiboye, who noted that the council had so far registered and certified 1,800,000 teachers in the country, said the challenges facing teaching included poor salaries, insecurity, and inadequate facilities.
He said, “Teaching profession has been dogged by so many challenges in Nigeria. We have low wages, bad motivation and poor welfare. Others are a short period of internship, high teacher-pupil ratio, the politicisation of education and unwarranted government interferences. We also have irregular budgetary allocations, poor work environment, massive unqualified teachers and porous entry qualification.
“A survey conducted by the Federal Government in 2010 revealed that there were 207,818 unqualified teachers in the primary schools. The north-east zone had the highest figure of 57.7 percent. Undoubtedly, the situation degenerated with the invasion of the insurgents. The north-west had 46.8 percent; north-central 38 percent; south-south 19.2 percent, south-east 16.7 percent and south-west 6.7 percent.”
The TRCN registrar also noted that Nigeria and other African countries were facing a scarcity of qualified teachers, adding that steps had been taken to ensure teachers’ efficiency in the country.
“We have registered and licensed qualified teachers reaching 1,800,000. There is also the accreditation, monitoring and supervision of the courses and programmes of Teacher Training Institutions. We also do an induction of education students at the point of graduation to create professional consciousness and to mitigate certificate forgery,” Ajiboye added.
Source: Punch http://punchng.com/207818-unqualified-teachers-in-primary-schools-trcn/
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