The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says the Federal Government disbursed a total of N57,165,751,416.12 to states for teachers professional development programme within the last 13 years.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made this known at the National Conference on Teacher Professional Development in Abuja.
Bobboyi said the conference, which has its theme as ‘Transforming Teacher Professional Development in Nigeria for Improved Learning Outcomes in Basic Education’, testified to Federal Government’s commitment to shore up level of knowledge in the sub-sector.
The UBEC boss, however, expressed concern over the poor number of teachers that have undergone training programme in recent years, even as he challenged state governments to live up to expectations in teachers’ capacity building schemes.
“The UBEC 2022 NPA reveals that 67.5% of teachers in public schools and 85.3% in private schools have not attended any in-service training in 5 years (2018-2022). This prevailing situation has implication for quality education delivery.
” The Federal Government, through UBEC, has contributed a total of N57,165,751,416.12 as assistance to the states for teacher professional development between 2009 and 2022.
” This is grossly inadequate to cover the training needs of the teachers. 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 basic education level, ” Bobboyi said.
Speaking further, the UBEC Executive Secretary lamented the poor learner/pupil ratio in Nigerian schools, saying such negative development has resulted in poor learning outcomes.
” The following data were returned from the UBEC 2022 National Personnel Audit of basic education institutions in the country. There were 177,027 basic education institutions with a total enrolment of 47,010,008, made up of 7,234,695 in ECCDE, 31,771,916 in primary schools and 8,003,397 in junior secondary schools. For teacher supply, there were 354,651 teachers/care givers in the ECCDE centres, 915,593 in primary schools and 416,291 in junior secondary schools.
” The learner/pupil ratio varies from State to State, but none is within the recommended ratio. There are States where learner/pupil ratio is as high as 1:100 pupils. Nigeria is yet to attain the 100% qualified teachers in primary schools. It is sad to find that some of the people teaching in schools are holders of the First School Leaving Certificate, Basic Education Certificate, Senior Secondary School Certificate, Associate Certificate in Education, Diploma Certificate.
