Nigeria’s education sector is embattled on every side. And this is hardly new. Burdened by poor funding, infrastructure deficit, shortage of qualified and trained teachers, outdated curriculum and others, the sector has been gasping for breath. While there are ongoing efforts to tackle some of the issues, they have yet to yield any tangible result.

Just last week, the issue of teacher deficit came up during the matriculation of the pioneer National Certificate of Education (NCE) students of the Federal College of Education, Ofeme Ohuhu, in Abia State. Speaking at the event, the Chairperson of the institution’s Governing Council, Hajia Rabiu Adamu, said the country needs about 1.2 million teachers to close the yawning teacher-student gap. According to her, a school ideally should have a ratio of one teacher to 25 students, whereas many schools in Nigeria operate a ratio of one teacher to 300 students.

“The biggest crisis in Nigeria is the teacher crisis where we have a gap of about 1.2 million teachers. We need 1.2 million teachers minimum for Nigerian classes to be adequately provided for,” she said.

She then urged the matriculating students to focus on their studies and stay in the teaching profession to meet the teacher-student requirements if they wanted a better future for Nigeria.

Hajia Adamu would not be the first to raise this concern. Stakeholders have been warning of the deteriorating state of the teaching profession in Nigeria as the interest of youths in the profession wanes. For instance, at the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) International Teachers’ Day event in Abuja in October 2024, a former Registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, raised the same concern.

“Teaching, once regarded as a noble profession, is now facing an existential crisis in Nigeria. The alarming drop in interest in teaching as a career, along with the mass departure of qualified teachers, is a sign that urgent intervention is needed,” Prof Ajiboye said in a presentation on “Valuing Teacher Voices: A Panacea for a Rejuvenated Teacher Education in Nigeria”.

The reasons for this crisis are all well known, from poor working conditions down to loss of prestige and lack of motivation. These appear to be more pronounced in the private school system, where school owners employ just anybody, whether trained as an educationist or not, and treat them as they like. And for many teachers in the private school system, it is a last resort after other options have failed, or a place holder pending when their other dreams materialise.

Two recent articles, one by Bunmi Ishola, a staff of the Nigerian Tribune, and another by Aku Uche Henry Jr, a private school teacher and education consultant, highlighted the inhumane treatment that private school teachers face in the hands of the school owners. Aku specifically pointed to “the absurd or non-existent contracts, salaries far below the national minimum wage, arbitrary dismissals, no pay during term breaks (even while teachers continue preparing lesson notes and curricula), virtually no pensions, gratuities, or career paths”.

So, it is good that the Chairperson of the Governing Council of a College of Education is talking about this matter of grave concern. However, we reckon that Hajia Adamu clearly understands the issues and knows very well that it goes beyond an appeal to the students to stay in the teaching profession when they graduate. For the students who would have to choose between becoming teachers and taking up other jobs, their choice would certainly not be about patriotism; it would be about which job guarantees that they would be able to pick their bills.

So, beyond the appeal to the students, we urge Hajia Adamu to take the matter to the right quarters in Abuja. We do not doubt that the government knows what to do. This problem, as we said at the beginning, is not a new one. We believe that there would be tonnes of recommendations gathering dust in government shelves. We suggest dusting them up and acting on them. And the time is now, not tomorrow. As it’s often said, no country can develop beyond the capacity of its educational system.