Nigeria needs 1.2m teachers’

The Governing Council Chairman of the Federal College of Education, Ofeme-Ohuhu, in Umuahia, Abia State, Hajjia Rabia Adamu, has blamed the crisis in the education sector on insufficient teachers.

Adamu disclosed this on Friday during the maiden matriculation ceremony of the college, stating, “We need 1.2 million teachers minimum for Nigerian classes to be adequately provided for.”

According to her, “the ratio that we have is supposed to be 1 to 25, one teacher to 25 pupils. But there are schools in this country where you have one teacher to 300, one teacher to 400, one teacher to 500. I would like to believe that the interest that you have shown in coming to a college of education is to become a teacher”.

Taking a critical look at the departmental spread of the 160 matriculants, Adamu regretted, “a hundred and sixty students are matriculating today. Across all the subject areas, I have noticed that there are a lot of people with a lot of interest in business, the education sector, followed by political science, and social studies. From my mental calculation, I think there are about 44 people wanting to study business.

“About 20 in social sciences, sociology, social work, social studies, and then there are about 15 in political science or thereabout. This is very good, but as a teacher and as a player in the education team, in the education sector, as a team leader of some sort in any activity that relates to education in Nigeria, I think that this admission profile is saying a lot. Nigeria is at the threshold of a crisis in the education sector, and we all know that,” she added.

Adamu stated that the implementation of the National Teacher Education Policy by the federal government would reposition the teaching profession.