UNICEF Supports Training of 18,000 Unqualified Teachers in N’east

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has supported the training of 18,000 unqualified teachers in the North-east in a 12-month course which has improved the standard of education in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

UNICEF chief of Maiduguri field office, Phuong Nguyen, who disclosed this in Maiduguri during a one day media dialogue on amplifying the achievements of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Accelerated Fund (AP), said only 29 per cent of school teachers have the minimum qualification needed for teaching.

She said with the gesture, which was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Teachers Institute (NTI) and the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, about 1.9 million boys, girls and youth who have been affected by conflict and without access to basic quality education in the region can now be exposed to quality learning.

“Across North-east Nigeria, only 29 per cent of schools have teachers with the minimum qualification. The average pupil-teacher ratio is 124 to 1.  Almost half of all schools need rehabilitation. 

“It is therefore little wonder that, according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS 2012), less than half of children (48.6 per cent) complete their primary school education in North-east Nigeria.

“About 1.9 million boys, girls and youth affected by conflict are without access to basic quality education in the region. This is inclusive of 56 per cent of all displaced children who are out of school.

“At least one million girls and boys will benefit as these newly certified teachers return to their classrooms equipped with modern and effective teaching methods, including the skills to provide gender sensitive and psychosocial support to learners” she said.

Other aspects of the GPE AF project also targets improving access to education with classes in at least 50 schools that have undergone renovation and 50 learning spaces being constructed.