Nigeria Needs 20 Years To Bridge Teachers Shortfall - Official

The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) said in Lagos on Wednesday that it would take the country 20 years to produce the 1.3 million teachers required to bridge existing teachers shortfall at basic education level.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Muhammed Junaid, disclosed this while delivering the 35th pre-convocation lecture at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka.

According to Junaid, the challenge had forced the commission to design policies to address the issue.

``In 2009, the Federal Ministry of Education’s roadmap to transformation reported that a total of 969,078 teachers would be needed for the early childhood and care education sub sector, 338,147 others for the primary education sub sector.

``The report further said that a total of 12,329 teachers would also be needed for the nomadic education sub sector and 581 others for the junior secondary education sub sector.

``This brings the total of overall teacher shortage at the basic education level to 1,320,135, across the country,” he said.

Junaid noted that with the various colleges’ current production capacity of 64,000 teachers per annum, it would take Nigeria 20 years to bridge the gap.

To address the problem, the executive secretary said the commission would introduce specialised teacher education programme beginning from the 2012/2013 academic session.

``It is expected that all the colleges of education including the FCE, Akoka, will key into the new programme as spelt out in the revised minimum standard document.

``If we desire to achieve our mission of education for all by the year 2015, we need to raise the current production level of the colleges of education to 330,033 teachers per annum for the next four years.

``No doubt, it is a daunting task, especially when we consider the fact that our colleges of education have not been getting the right number of candidates for training as the solution lie solely with the colleges not the regulatory body,” Junaid added.

Junaid expressed the hope that the commission’s current policy would make significant difference in the quality of the products of the colleges.

``These programmes and skills designed for faculty members in our colleges will make the teacher education and training programmes more relevant to the students and the subs ector,” he said.

He recalled that the commission had in 2010 collaborated with the Commonwealth of Learning to develop two child-friendly schools and training manuals for both pre-service and in-service education.

He promised that multi-media micro-teaching laboratories would be built in federal and state colleges of education across the country in the next two years.

In his address of welcome, the provost of the college, Dr Sijibunmi Olusanya, said the college would continue to improve the quality and standard of education it imparts on its students.

He said laboratories and workshops had been given a facelift, adding that staff training toward producing skilled and competent graduates had also been stepped up.

Olusanya urged government at all levels and corporate organisations in the country to continue to fund education particularly technical education.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the college will on Sept.13 graduate 805 students during its convocation ceremony.

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