The crisis of teacher qualification in Nigeria must be confronted
Nigeria’s education sector is reeling from a systemic crisis, one that strikes at the very root of learning: the quality and qualification of teachers. This rot is no longer speculative. It is factual, tragic, and well-documented.
Recently, the Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, made a stunning admission. He revealed that more than half of the over 4,200 teachers recruited in the state through unauthorised means lacked basic qualifications.
This is not an isolated case. It is part of a national pattern of decay in teacher recruitment and education quality.
The same concern was raised by the Chairman of Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Adamu Mohammed Dugari, who expressed dismay at the inability of many teachers to live up to their professional responsibilities despite massive investments by the state government.
These revelations confirm what has long been feared: that many of those occupying classrooms as teachers are neither qualified nor competent. Some cannot read fluently, let alone teach.
In the worst cases, reports show that teachers struggle to read the same textbooks they are meant to use for instruction. This is a frightening situation that reflects a crumbling educational foundation.
Evidence of this disaster abounds. In Sokoto State, more than half of primary school teachers were reported to be functionally illiterate.
In Katsina, over 11,000 teachers were declared unqualified. Even at the federal level, former Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, lamented that Nigeria was one of the few countries where individuals without any form of teaching qualification could be found instructing children.
The situation becomes more dire when one recalls the public backlash against the teacher competency tests introduced by former Governors Nasir El-Rufai in Kaduna and Adams Oshiomhole in Edo.
Rather than welcome reforms, teacher unions resisted assessments meant to separate competent educators from unfit ones.
This resistance was not always without justification. In many instances, the real culprits were those who facilitated the recruitment of unqualified teachers based on political patronage and nepotism.
Nonetheless, the cost of this failure is being paid by millions of Nigerian children. Pupils are leaving school unable to read, write, or comprehend basic arithmetic.
These are not academic shortcomings, they are developmental tragedies. Nigeria is churning out educated illiterates not because children are incapable, but because they are being miseducated by unqualified, poorly trained, and demotivated teachers.
The teaching profession, once a noble calling, is now a last resort for the unemployed. The decline in enrolment into National Certificate of Education (NCE) programmes is an indictment of national failure to make teaching attractive. It reflects a society that neither values nor rewards educators. Worse still, many teachers—especially in private schools—work under harsh, exploitative conditions for meagre wages and no job security.
Even in the public sector, teacher welfare is disgraceful. Salaries are irregular.
Allowances are unpaid. Pensions and gratuities are withheld. Yet we expect teachers to produce world-class learners in dilapidated classrooms with no books, no electricity, and no motivation. This is sheer hypocrisy. As long as we treat teachers as disposable tools, we will continue to fail our children.
We are appalled that despite enormous funding opportunities through agencies like the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), some states still refuse to release their counterpart funds.
This political indifference has left billions of naira unutilised while pupils learn under leaking roofs and on bare floors.
The core of every successful education system rests on two things: curriculum and teacher education. As Prof. Chidi Odinkalu rightly observed, a certificate alone does not make a teacher. What matters is how well that teacher is trained, equipped, and supported. In the past, even teachers with the basic Grade II certificate delivered quality education because the system was focused on training, monitoring, and discipline. Today, even with a diploma or degree, many teachers lack basic pedagogical skills.
During the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, there was a presidential directive to recruit and train 500,000 qualified graduates and NCE holders into primary schools. That vision was only partially realised, with about 150,000 deployed through the N-Power programme. But without state-level cooperation, even the best federal policies will collapse under bureaucratic sabotage.
If Nigeria is serious about rescuing its future, we must begin with the foundation teachers. Every level of government must commit to recruiting only qualified and competent teachers. No classroom should be manned by anyone who is untrained, uncertified, or ill-prepared. This is non-negotiable.
We must also overhaul the teacher training institutions. Their curriculum must be revised to meet today’s realities, and their facilities must be upgraded to attract the brightest minds into the profession. It is time to restore dignity to teaching—not by lip service but through concrete policies, attractive wages, and institutional respect.
The often repeated cliché that a teacher’s reward is in heaven must be banished from our national conscience. Nigerian teachers deserve their reward here and now on earth, in cash, in kind, and in respect.
No nation rises above the quality of its teachers. If we are truly committed to development, then we must prioritise the recruitment, training, and welfare of the very people we entrust with our children’s minds.