A Facebook group, the Nigerian Teachers Community (NTC) has expressed concern over the recruitment of unqualified teachers by unregistered private schools across Nigeria, saying it portends danger.
The Leader of the forum, Dr Peter Ogudoro made this known at a workshop tagged: “Transformation Leadership in the Education Sector”, in Lagos on Saturday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NTC is the largest community of teachers in the world online, with over 700,000 members from over 100 countries of the world.
NAN reports that the workshop was organised by the Nigerian Teachers Community’s global partners who are interested in helping Nigeria overcome its development challenges through a truly functional education system.
Ogudoro declared that with an increase in unqualified teachers in private schools, the quality of education in the country would continue to fall.
According to him, it is important for school owners nationwide to recruit only qualified, registered and licensed teachers.
The educationist also decried that most proprietors of private schools lacked the professional skills required to make the right choices of teachers they employed in their schools.
Ogudoro, however, urged administrators of private schools to get the required professional skills to effectively employ qualified teachers in their respective schools.
He said that while a large percentage of teachers in public schools were well-trained and qualified, the same could not be said of private schools.
The educationist said the idea of the workshop was to equip school leaders with the skills needed to upgrade the quality of service so that their children could become globally competitive.
“By so doing, we will be able to deal with the higher rate of unemployment we experience in the country, and by extension, we will be indirectly banishing poverty. Poverty is so pervasive in Nigeria.
“We are happy that the workshop has been able to train school leaders from different private schools
“So, when they go back to their schools, they will hire better and they will also send those who don’t have the credentials, who are already teaching, back to school.
“Back to school doesn’t mean they have to abandon their jobs. They can study alongside the jobs they do,” Ogudoro said.
He added that, as a nation, the country had not invested in science education adequately.
The educationist noted that even the children who were studying sciences were not studying it in a way that they could become globally competitive.
Ogudoro said, “That is how it comes when people graduate as engineers in Nigeria, yet, they can’t fix anything”.
He said they could not fabricate anything because there was so much of road learning, adding that they just cram and get A’s in school certificates.
“However, that is not where the world is. We are trying to change that by helping these children, especially those who have shown some interest in it.
“And also have the gift that enables them to go with science. We are equipping them with proper training in that area.
“And we know that our universities in the country are not equipped to make them the kind of engineers we want them to be.
“People who will fix our electricity challenge, fix our roads. So we are sending them out to the U.S. We demand it.
“Of course, most of their parents can’t afford the education that is offered in the U.S. So we are giving them education that will enable them to get that education for free.”
Ogudoro said that 20 students would get scholarships worth over N400 million from the community and its partners.
He noted that the mandate was that these students would receive the best education, and then come back to help Nigeria to move forward.
Ogudoro added that the community was conducting intensive classroom work in August, following the students up and also preparing them to write international exams.
Also speaking, a School Proprietress from a school in Kano, Mrs Naime Jahum, blamed the present situation on the rate of unemployment.
Jahum alleged that unregistered private schools were after profit and some of them did not bother about the quality of education the pupils receive.
She urged schools across the country to imbibe the reading culture in their school curriculum.
