During the 2022 World Teachers’ Day, Audrey Azoulay, Director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared that worldwide, 69 million teachers are needed to reach universal basic education by 2030. The largest deficit is in sub-Saharan Africa. He called on governments around the world to step up their support for teachers, warning that the profession is struggling to retain its workforce and attract new talent.
Lack of training, unattractive working conditions and inadequate funding all undermine the teaching profession and aggravate the global learning crisis. UNESCO has always placed teachers at the heart of the fight for the right to inclusive and quality education. There is an urgent need to better recognise this profession on which the future of our children depends.
UNESCO’s estimates indicate the need for an additional 24.4 million teachers in primary education and some 44.4 million teachers in secondary education to achieve universal basic education by 2030. With some of the most overcrowded classrooms in the world, sub-Saharan Africa is also home to the most overburdened teachers and understaffed systems, with 90% of secondary schools facing serious teaching shortages.
New UNESCO figures unveiled for 2022 World Teachers’ Day show that 5.4 million teachers are needed at the primary level in sub-Saharan Africa, and 11.1 million teachers at the secondary level, if we are to achieve the targets set by the 2030 Agenda. The region with the second largest deficit is Southern Asia: UNESCO projects 1.7 million additional teachers will be needed at the primary level, and 5.3 million at the secondary level.
Provost Advocates Dual-Mode Degree/NCE Admissions
Dr. Wahab Azeez, the Provost of Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, expressed worries at the dwindling low enrolment figures of candidates seeking teacher education knowledge.
Azeez whose institution matriculated 727 for 2020/2021 and 412 for the 2022/2023 academic sessions for the Nigeria Certification in Education (NEC) and Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) explained that the current situation is that admission seekers apply to universities first and only give a second thought to colleges of education after they failed to get admitted into the universities.
According to him, “The low enrolment by students into colleges of education is an annual problem. We have many federal, state and private colleges of education in the country. The only way to address the low enrolment by students is to allow colleges of education in the country to run dual mode by awarding NCE and degrees together. This will attract more students.”
Azeez said the second reason why the colleges of education have low enrolment is that they are not conventional institutions, adding, like FCE, Technical we run non-science and vocational related courses but the universities run numerous programmes which attract students.”
Emphasising that Colleges of Education are not dumping grounds for candidates, Dr. Azeez identified poor attraction of students by Colleges of Education as another reason.
Azeez, who returned for a second term, enumerated the challenges facing the college including inadequate allocation of funds, land constraints and insufficient manpower, among others.
Advocating for adequate support for Colleges of Education, Dr. Azeez said, “We are determined to put this country on progressive and accelerated speed as far as Technical Vocational Education is concerned. We need to build the infrastructural base and train the personnel to be able to save the country a large sum of capital flight expended on the training of students abroad. I urge the country’s leadership to declare an emergency on this critical area of our development.
“We need to de-emphasize theoretical education and put practice-focused, technology, technical and vocational education on the front burner of our growth and development.”
Poor Remuneration, Lamentations By Teachers Scary
In his reaction to the lopsided enrolment data and preference for other levels of education by parents and candidates, Comrade Hassan Taiwo-Soweto, the National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) said the lack of interest in teacher education depicts what society has made of the teaching profession.
“It portends a further collapse of public education. Teachers are a key stakeholder in any educational sector. But here in Nigeria, teachers have been reduced to paupers and the profession relegated.
“This is why many would rather opt for other professional fields that be trained to become teachers. The only way out is for the pay and work conditions of teachers to be improved. Teachers deserve to reap the full benefit of their labour here on earth while they are alive.
“We need to end capitalism and put in place a Socialist Nigeria that can ensure payment of living wage for teachers and improved funding of public education and decent jobs for all.”
Stakeholder Blames It On Unequal Job Distribution
Reacting to this, Comrade Alabi Kazeem Labaika, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) , Lagos State Chapter, appealed to the government to make teaching professional more attractive and provide enough incentives for those that are qualified and committed to the sector.
He said the ill-treatment meted to teachers have made them object of pity by the citizens and by extension they children they teach, saying such discourages the students to make teacher education third choice in the JAMB enrolment forms.
Labaika urged the government to make the profession more attractive to allay the fears and negative perception held by the younger one about the teaching profession, saying teacher should no longer be treated like orphans.
He advocated for equal job opportunities for teachers like other professionals, saying fresh nurses and others in the medical profession earn as much as a level 13 teacher that has put in several years in the profession.
Today, the notion held by candidates is that once you study education, you will end up as a teacher in a private school, or if you study agriculture, you won’t get a proper job. Parents and society must stop mounting pressure on children and forcing academic programmes on their wards. They should allow children to embrace the legitimate education of their choice.