Nigeria will recruit 500,000 additional teachers in 2016 to boost country’s education standards.
President Muhammadu Buhari made the announcement in his Christmas address to the nation.
The country’s public education sector has suffered neglect over the years, forcing many parents to send their children to private schools, which are mostly manned by unqualified teachers.
Basic education is run by Nigeria’s 36 states. But even then, the federal government has decided to move in to save the sector from total collapse.
Currently, there are 570,000 teachers in the public primary schools.
Announcing the decision to boost basic education, President Buhari said the move would restore confidence in public schools.
The country’s pupil to teacher ratio in primary school stands at 1 to 36 in 2009 as against the Unesco recommended ratio of 1 to 20.
This is the number of pupils enrolled in primary school divided by the number of primary school teachers.
The president’s decision has been well received by the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), an umbrella body of senior civil servants.
In a statement on December 27, 2015 in Abuja, the union said that the move would curb escalating unemployment.
DEVOID OF POLITICS
On his part, Deputy Chairman of Lagos Wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, Mr Adesina Adedoyin, has urged the government to involve teachers in the recruitment drive to ensure it is devoid of politics.
“For the exercise to succeed, trained teachers, who love teaching, should be considered for employment and not relations of political office holders,” he insisted.
The last recruitment that took place in primary schools in Lagos state was 15 years ago.