The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has disclosed that the federal government disbursed N57.16 billion to states for teachers’ professional development programmes in the last 13 years.
Development Diaries reports that despite this investment, Nigeria has yet to achieve 100 percent qualified teachers in primary education.
Speaking at the national conference on Teacher Professional Development (TPD) in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hamid Bobboyi, complained of state governments’ lack of commitment towards enhancing the capacity of teachers through regular training.
According to him, the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) found that the majority of teachers in public and primary schools had not attended in-service training in five years.
He said, ‘The states that are being assisted have come to depend largely on the federal government fund for their TPD, with little or no contribution.
‘This is a major challenge in assuring quality learning outcomes at the basic education level’.
Recall that the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) had in May revealed that 70 percent of teachers in private schools in southwest Nigeria were not qualified.
The council also revealed that many teachers in Nigeria had never been exposed to training and were using outdated equipment for illustration.
Recall, too, that the acting Secretary of UBEC, Bala Zakari, had in May disclosed that only 11 states had accessed the 2022 matching grants as of 30 April, 2023.
It is clear that UBEC lacks strong enforcement mechanisms based on the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act of 2004 as the law does not provide for an oversight body to ensure compliance.
Development Diaries calls for the amendment of the UBE Act to include a monitoring mechanism and a results-based framework that provides additional resources to states that meet certain deliverables in educational outcomes.
As part of investments in education, we further call on state governments to make teaching truly professional and ensure that only qualified teachers take charge of classrooms in schools across the country.
Photo source: UBEC
