Nigeria has a shortage of 277,537 teachers at the basic level, this was revealed after a National Personnel Audit was conducted on public and private education in Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.
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Bobboyi added that the audit showed that 73% of teachers in public were considered as qualified and only 53% of teachers in Nigeria private schools were qualified to teach.
- “Our hope is that with the current reforms that are being put in place where you attract the best candidates into the teaching profession and compensate them adequately, the narrative will change.”
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He added that Nigeria needs to prioritize teacher training, citing challenges in finding qualified teachers for public education in Nigeria and added the Ministry of Education is working on a plan to tackle it.
The UBEC Chief also disclosed that the UBEC will designate 10% of its Consolidated Revenue Fund to Teacher Professional Development to improve teaching quality.
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- “We remain the biggest teacher development agency in the country, not even the National Teachers’ Institute or any other agency. UBEC’s 10 per cent of the entire amount that is received from the Consolidated Revenue Fund is designated for Teacher Professional Development, through the States’ Universal Basic Education Boards.
- “That is something that is very important for us to realise that we pump in a minimum of N10 billion every year for Teacher Professional Development in this country.”
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UBEC said it will also designate 15% of its Consolidated Revenue Fund to Teacher Professional Development for the purchase of instructional materials for distribution to schools, while 2% of UBEC funding was allocated to special needs education, valued at roughly N2.1 billion annually, to be disbursed to states.
UBEC says it expects the various state’s government to add to the contribution by providing its own textbooks for schools.
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What you should know
- Of the N1.13 trillion allocated to education in the 2021 budget, N742.52 billion is meant for the Recurrent and Capital Expenditure of the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies.
- N70.05 billion is budgeted for the provision of Universal Basic Education (UBEC).
- N318 billion is budgeted for the provisions of infrastructure in tertiary institutions through TETFUND.
