The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)’s 2022/2023 National Personnel Audit Report says that teacher shortage in public primary schools across the country stands at 194,876.
According to UBEC report, out of the 694,078 teachers needed at the primary school level across the country, only 499,202 are available.
More disturbing is that over 16 state governments did not conduct teacher recruitment in basic schools for five years, according to findings.
The situation is stifling learning in basic schools as several pupils consistently skip important subjects owing to lack of teachers in some subjects, experts say.
It is also impeding proper intellectual growth of pupils and slows their performance, experts further said.
Nigeria has a total of 79,775 public schools while private schools currently stand at 91,252.
According to the UBEC report, Nigeria had 1,686,533 teachers at basic education sub-cadre in 2022. The Early Childhood Care Development Education (ECCDE) had 354,651 of the number, while 915,596 teachers were in primary schools (public and private schools). Also, junior secondary schools had 416,291 teachers in 2022.
In the same year, recruitment of teachers in the early childhood units rose by 124 per cent (from 43,368 in 2018 to 96,956), while public primary and secondary schools decreased by 21.0 per cent in 2023.
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has decried the shortage of teachers which it says is eroding the basic school cadre, stating that it is more noticeable in rural areas.
Also, Temitope Obisesan, a senior secondary school teacher, said one of the reasons for the shortage of teachers is that many teachers who have retired are not being replaced on time.
“Over the years, many teachers have retired and are still retiring, but there will never be replacements. So, the number of teachers in schools has kept reducing and the available teachers are made to take over those subjects sometimes.
“Imagine where art students do not take literature because there was no teacher,” she said.
Obisesan reiterated that this has implications for the quality of teaching and learning outputs.
“This affects the learning output of the students because they will not be well-equipped. When students see one teacher too many times in the class, they lose their interest in the subject,” she said.
