The decision of the Federal Government to recruit 500,000
teachers as part of its plans to revamp the country’s education sector has
continued to generate divergent views taking into cognizance workable
modalities to realizing the plans.
Over the years, stakeholders in the education sector
in Nigeria have attributed the seemingly dysfunctional status of the country’s
education sector to inadequate teachers and lack of qualified teaching
professionals amongst other factors.
Following the glaring shortage of teachers in the
national’s public schools, President Buhari has pledged his administration’s
determination to embark on recruitment of about 500, 000 teachers to train and
deploy them to teach in public schools, especially in the rural areas.
“We will devote a significant portion of our recurrent
expenditure to institutions that provide critical government services.
We will spend N369.6 billion in Education and in partner
with the state government and local government areas, we shall recruit, train
and deploy 500, 000 teachers…” President Buhari has said while presenting the
2016 appropriation bill to the National Assembly recently.
However, some analysts have described the determination
of the Buhari led administration to overhauling the education sector by
recruiting and injecting 500, 000 teaching professionals in 2016 as succour to the
dying sector.
Meanwhile, while some Nigerians welcome the move by the
federal government to kick start the process of employing education graduates
and NCE holders to fast track the revival of the country’s education subsector,
others with different school of thoughts said that besides allegedly rocking
the recruitment process with corruption, there were other myriads of challenges
militating the progressive growth of the country’s education subsector beyond
recruitment of teaching personnel.
To some Nigerians who commended the federal government’s
efforts, recruitment of 500, 000 teaching personnel will go a long way to
reducing the rate of unemployment in the country and providing a platform where
employable graduates parading the street will engage in productive adventures,
a step they said will boost the nation’s economy and reduce the incidence of
crimes.
To other analysts, the recruitment process may just be
like every other recruitment exercise in Nigeria where most of the people who
are qualified for the recruitment with superlative and excellent performances
during the oral and written interviews would be ignored in favour of cronies of
those in corridor of power, allowing nepotism and favoritism to hold sways.
Sometimes in 2013, a report from Teachers’ Verification
Exercise as reported in some sections of the media revealed that, some primary
school teachers in Kogi state did not know how to speak well
English while a Female teacher in Edo state found
it extremely difficult to read out the contents of her own Curriculum Vitae
(C.V) after over 20 years of teaching experience. In the same year, primary
four mathematics examinations were conducted for primary teachers in Kaduna
state but only one of the teachers who sat for the exams was able to score 75%
as others were reported to have allegedly scored between 0% to 25%.
While the leadership of National Union of Teachers (NUT),
the umbrella that superintends over Nigerian teachers’ affairs, have on many
occasions decried the opaque methods associating with teachers recruitment
because in most cases, the problem of unqualified people teaching Nigerian
children are caused by the people employing them as their appointments are
always based on super-connection and not on personal competence, diligence and
performance.
The union has also expressed fears over the government’s
plan to recruit 500, 000 teachers as contained in a statement by its General
Secretary, Ikpe Obong, NUT has alleged that, the process might be used as a
means of political compensation especially after the recent general elections,
and therefore called on the government to involving its leadership to forestall
recruitment of quacks into the teaching profession.
In a chat with The Authority, Executive Director of
Education for All and Career Foundation (EFACAF), a nongovernmental
organization in Abuja, Mr. Akwu Success Salifu, who commended the efforts of
the federal government to employing such a huge number of graduate teachers,
also advised the government to look beyond recruiting personnel to providing
other teaching and learning facilities to complement teachers’ efforts.
Mr. Akwu lamented the dearth of facilities such as
libraries and laboratories in many public primary and secondary schools in
Nigeria, explaining that, the cardinal aim for recruitment the teaching
personnel would be trounced if they are not equipped with the 21st Century’s
educational facilities.
“I must appreciate President Buhari and his team for the
good plan to revive our education sector. The truth is, there are many
challenges facing the education sector and recruitment of teaching personnel is
just one out of a hundred of them. What becomes of a good farmer after
employing him and you do not give him working implements, his skills and
strength will find no expression,” Mr. Akwu averred.
He added: Besides, there are other issues associating
with this recruitment: do they have a correct data of graduate teachers and NCE
holders in Nigeria?
What modalities are they going to use for this recruitment?
Is it going to take similar trajectory that other recruitment exercises in the
country have taken? Are they going use ‘Quota System’ which has killed merit
and proficiency in our land?” Mr. Akwu argued.
On her part, Mrs. Akpede Bridget Elijah, an Abuja based
Educationist said that, employing 500, 000 teachers will be a mile stone
achievement by the present administration as it will reduce the rate of
unemployment and get our teeming unemployed youth to work.
“If the federal government is able to partner with state
government and local government to employ 500, 000 teachers, that to me, is a
great achievement because they may also employ other people in other sectors of
the economy which will reduce the rate of unemployment.”
“I am appealing to the government to make the recruitment
exercise transparent to enable the qualified ones to be employed because if the
recruitment of these 500, 000 teachers are left to job racketeers, qualified
people without connection will be side-lined, Mrs. Bridget elucidated.
An Abuja based Political Scientist, Mr. Daniel Senusi
Musa, who also spoke with the authority, said that, the recruitment of 500, 000
teachers will reduce the monopoly of private school and boost the efficiency of
public schools, stressing that, the recruitment exercise will improve on the
standard of living of the people that will be recruited.
“It is a good thing for this country. Sending 500, 000
qualified teachers to the public schools will boost the quality of our education
and better the life of the people to be employed.”
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