Many state governments have refused to employ teachers since 2015 despite an acute shortage of teaching personnel in public primary schools across the country, investigations by The PUNCH have shown.
The union’s National Publicity Secretary, Audu Amba, said apart from Gombe, Kaduna, Imo, Katsina, Kano, Lagos, Plateau and Sokoto states, other 28 states had not employed teachers in the last four years.He also said only 11 states namely Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Lagos, Plateau, Sokoto, Katsina, Yobe and the Federal Capital Territory had recruited secondary school teachers in the last four years.
Meanwhile, public school teachers across the country, who explained their ordeals to The PUNCH, said basic education delivery in the country would not grow until their welfare was taken seriously by the government at all levels. But the Commissioner for Education, Foluso Daramola, attributed the problem to the alleged neglect of education by the immediate past government.
Some of the schools visited by one of our correspondents included the Community Primary School, Ijare in Ifedore Local Government Area and Emmanuel Anglican Primary School, Ikota in Akure South Local Government Area, and the St. Paul Primary School, Akure.Some of the teachers, who spoke with one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the schools had few pupils and teachers .
He said, “We are supposed to have about 15,000 teachers in our primary schools in this state but we currently have 7,000.” In Gombe State, the Headmaster of Bubayero Primary School, Gombe, Kawu Muhammad, in an interview with The PUNCH, blamed some politicians for recruiting people based on political loyalty.
A teacher at the Carter Primary School, Ogui, located opposite Railway Main Gate by Ogui Police Station, who did not want his name mentioned, said, “We don’t have teachers. We have only five teachers including the headmistress.” She said, “Some of us do petty trading to augment our salaries. We received 80 per cent salaries in March and 60 per cent in April and sometimes the percentage is even lower than that.”
In Ebonyi State, a teacher at Akanto Primary School, in Amasiri clan, Afikpo North Local Government Area, who spoke to The PUNCH on condition of anonymity, said the school had only three teachers.
Only interested construction rather than manpower.