Better days for teachers

It is no longer news that Nigeria has a shortage of public school teachers and inadequate training to equip those manning the classrooms in 21st century skills. The two key challenges are mostly impacting the quality of education at the basic education level. Many public schools are understaffed with poorly trained teachers, resulting in poor pupils learning outcomes and high student-teacher ratios.

A 2024 survey by Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) found that there was a shortage of 194,876 teachers in public primary schools across the country. This is, however, a reflection of the global challenge facing the education sector. According to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) statistics, the world urgently needs 44 million teachers by 2030 to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality. The teacher shortage is impacting sub-Saharan Africa the most, where an estimated 15 million new teachers are needed by 2030.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) had revealed that 16 states failed to conduct recruitment between 2018 and 2022. The NUT, however, lauded the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Katsina states for recruiting teachers during the period under review.