31% Teachers In Sokoto Not Qualified – Committee

By Najem Francis, Sokoto

Sokoto State needs additional 548 teachers in order to achieve a teacher/student ratio of 1:40 in line with the standard set for public schools in the state.

However, 31 percent of the teachers though not qualified, are educated enough to be trained to upgrade their qualifications to be in the classroom.

These were part of the findings and recommendations of the Schools Needs Assessment Sub-committee of the committee on state of emergency in education put in place by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to proffer practical solutions to challenges confronting education in the state.

Presenting the report to the governor, the Chairman of the sub-committee, Dr. Shadi Sabeh, said a total of 360 schools were assessed and that there was need for the government to urgently redress the imbalance in teachers’ distribution particularly between rural and urban areas.

“There’s need to repost 537 teachers from some schools that are over-staffed within the Sokoto metropolis to the many that are lacking teachers in rural areas,” he said.

He observed that lack of ICT infrastructure in schools was of serious concern because 73% of teachers surveyed lacked computer skills.

He said that steps must also be taken to enforce compliance with Federal Government’s directive that all teachers must be registered with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

According to him, only 14% of the serving teachers were duly registered at the moment.

“In general, there is an ardent and urgent need for a robust capacity building program that will close the training gap among teachers in the state. This is against the backdrop that 90% of teachers surveyed have not attended any form of training, workshop and seminar in the last three years” he stated.

In his remarks Governor Tambuwal assured that they would be implemented to the letter while other measures would also be put in place to ensure a turnaround in the fortunes of the education sector.

He assured that a new training schedule would  be drawn up  to  provide the  teachers  the opportunities to attend regular refresher courses.

He commended the members of the sub-committee for a job well done, adding that the people and government of the state would forever be grateful to them for their contributions towards uplifting education in the state.


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