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‘65 per cent of teachers in Kano State not qualified’

By Murtala Adewale (Kano) and Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu (Benin City)
09 October 2017   |   3:41 am
According to records provided by the Kano zonal office of Teachers Registration Council (TRC), 26,154 teachers, representing 65.3 per cent of teachers in primary schools are not qualified to teach.


• Edo tutors to get N25000 minimum wage

The yearning for improved quality of teaching and learning may remain low if the present statistics of qualified teachers in Kano State is anything to go by.According to records provided by the Kano zonal office of Teachers Registration Council (TRC), 26,154 teachers, representing 65.3 per cent of teachers in primary schools are not qualified to teach.Put in arithmetic, only 13,899 teachers representing 34.7 per cent out of the 40,053 are registered and certified by TRC.

Although the available records obtained from Kano State educational agencies indicated 3,183,696 pupils enrollment and 493,257 students in secondary schools, the number of teachers in the state is far below adequate in terms of quality and quantity.Figures obtained from State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) revealed 40,053 teachers under its payroll.

Still with the estimated 3,183,696 pupils enrollment, teacher/pupils ratio is placed at 1:79.  Breaking into qualified teacher ratio shows 1: 229 while the ratio of unqualified teacher to pupils is put at 1:122.In the state public secondary schools, available data obtained from the Kano State Secondary Schools Board indicated that it has 493,257 students and 16,482 teachers.

Out of the 16,482 teachers under the state government payroll, 10,996 representing 66.7 per cent are not qualified to teach. While only 5,486, representing 33.3 per cent are qualified to teach.Inferring from the input figure, student teacher ratio still stand at 89: 1, except for none qualified teachers that remain at 44.8:1.

A total of 56,535 teachers work in both public primary and secondary schools. Out of this figure, 37,150 teacher representing 65.7 per cent are not qualified to teach. Of this figure, 19,385 about 34.3 per cent possess the basic minimum requirement for teaching. 
 
Meanwhile, as a way of encouraging teachers and young persons into teaching, Edo State government has assured that primary school teachers in the state would begin to enjoy N25, 000 minimum wage before the end of the year along with other welfare packages.The Governor, Goodwin Obaseki, stated this at an event over the weekend to mark this year’s World Teachers Day.
   
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu, the governor said the plan to extend such benefit to make the teachers be at par with other civil servants in the state has already been concluded, saying that the issue of Leave Transport Grant (LTG) will be dealt with before October ending.
He added that the issues of subvention and prompt promotion for teachers would equally receive urgent attention. 

He urged the teachers to always respect their professional ethics, while government plays its own part. The state chairman of NUT, comrade Iyalomhe Akhagbemhe, commended the state government for the prompt payment of salaries, given the fact that their counterparts in other states are owed salaries running into months. He said this prompt payment has brought about industrial harmony in the state.
 
He nonetheless drew government attention to areas in the education sector begging for attention, which include Leave Transport Grants (LTG), promotion, subvention, staff recruitment among others. He however admonished his colleagues to further rededicate themselves to their chosen profession to justify the huge investment by government in the education sector.

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