Teaching, Nigeria’s ‘profession of last resort’

In fact, the importance of the teaching profession cannot be over emphasised because teachers help to transfer knowledge and education to future generation. But over the years, the position of teachers has been relegated to the background, forgetting the fact that teachers are the educators of today and tomorrow’s ministers, lawmakers, presidents and governors. They […]

In fact, the importance of the teaching profession cannot be over emphasised because teachers help to transfer knowledge and education to future generation. But over the years, the position of teachers has been relegated to the background, forgetting the fact that teachers are the educators of today and tomorrow’s ministers, lawmakers, presidents and governors. They help to nurture the character and sagacity of today’s successful bankers and businessmen. Teachers are the quintessential unsung heroes.
With the rise of other professions whose practitioners were built by teachers, the honour accorded teachers waned down and, thus, affect teachers commitments to their duty.
The declining status of the teaching profession and teachers in the country has become a thing of concern because the situation is also reflecting in the quality of students produced at all education levels.
The dissatisfaction is not unrelated to poor remuneration of teachers, compared to other professionals.
Taking teaching as a profession has become a last resort in Nigeria whereas, elsewhere, teaching is given all the respect it deserves. Technically, teachers mould the future of a nation. Why should a nation not take seriously the people responsible for the quality of its near and far future?
A professor of education leadership, University of Abuja, Salihu Yusufu Ingawa, says teaching is an unsung profession in Nigeria.
He said: “A teacher makes a difference in all our lives, educating kids and preparing them to become executives, doctors and engineers….”
Teaching should be recognised as one of the most challenging and respected career choices, vital to the social, cultural and economic health of nations, he enthused.
Ingawa lamented that teaching is not recognized as a profession in Nigeria but as a public service.
According to him, teaching should not consist of instructions to students who sit in row at desks, “obediently listening and copying what they hear,” adding: “Rather, teaching should offer children rich, satisfying and exceptional learning experiences.”
The National Policy on Education is clear on the fact that no education system can rise above the level of its teachers.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Macjohn Nwaobiala, recently in Abuja, said that teacher qualities as well as the quality of instruction have been on the decline, contributing significantly to poor performance of students in examinations nationwide.
To arrest the decline governments focus on tackling the crisis in teaching and teachers education with particular attention on the output of the students in schools as well as the relevance of teachers’ education.
The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) Professor Muhammad I. Junaid in an interview with Daily Trust said the commission has noticed a disconnect between the training programme of teachers and the curriculum that they are supposed to deliver after training which invariably affects the output of the teachers.
Junaid said in addressing the issue of relevance and quality, the commission in 2007 harmonised the NCE minimum standards with the new basic education curriculum introduced by the Nigeria Research and Education Development Council (NREDC).
However, that move seems not to have done much to improve quality as more dust keeps rising.
Apart from poor remuneration, other factors contribute to the parlous state of education in the country.
Micheal Sule, a proprietor of a private school in Abuja said the quality of teachers is on decline due to poor supervision by employers.
“In private schools, they don’t employ qualified teachers but with good supervision, they are able to perform well while in the public schools they employ NCE holders and educationists but they are not performing maximally due to lack of supervision.”
He pointed out that most teachers have poor training background and learning so they exhibit those things when they come to class.
He said that parents also contribute to the decline in quality of education, adding that if they fail, the efforts of the teachers will not be maximally felt.
For Musa Mato, a civil engineer, teaching is a very noble thing to do but not in a country like Nigeria where it has been relegated to the background due to poor remuneration and also because of the way the society cast aspersion on teachers.
 “For some people, the moment you say you are a teacher, they see you as a poor man, that is how bad it is and I can’t imagine myself being a teacher.”
Janet Obialor, a banker, said: “The quality will remain poor because most teachers are teaching because of the circumstance they found themselves in.”
 She said as a corps member, she was asked to teach in her place of primary assignment even though she didn’t want to, adding: “The schools’ teachers on seeing corpers posted to their schools, left the class room for the corpers who do not have the training to teach. So we just used our own initiatives and what they told us to teach.”
Apart from poor quality of teachers, the teachers’ attitude to work has also not helped matters. Many teachers are recruited by the federal and state governments and “I believe they have the qualification but they just relax and do what they like because its government work,” said Obialor.
“Most of them come late because they have to stay back to prepare snacks that they will sell to pupils and they eventually come, seat under the tree to discuss without entering the class room.”
According to her, the pupils only get a fair teaching attention when examinations are approaching and where they needed to cover most of the syllabus. Such fire brigade approach cannot help students, especially the slow learners.
On how to attract more hands into the profession, Junaid said: “If you want to attract best brains to teaching, there must be incentives that will come from employers of teachers. If you put incentives into teaching, then you will see more people coming into teaching because of those incentives, so I think states can go a long way in that direction.”
However, various measures have been suggested on how to improve the professional image of teachers, some of which include improved salary, soft loans by the government and professionalisation of teaching.
Ingawa said there is need for the federal government to establish teacher education council with the mandate of regulating on all matters relating to teacher education.
He said that teacher training institutes have lost the capacity to supervise, assess and mentor successfully the teaching practice segment of the pre-service teachers.
While urging the teachers to come together for the betterment of the profession, he said this objective can be achieved through the formation of a strong federating union for teachers.