A plea for our teachers

THIS is a humble appeal directed to concerned authorities requesting that at least some form of consideration be shown to some competent teachers, who would otherwise be referred to as “unqualified,” going strictly by their non-possession of the N.C.E/B.Ed./PGDE or other education-related qualifications, as well as their status of registration with the Teachers Registration council of Nigeria (T.R.C.N).

Going by this policy on possession of only education-related qualifications by all school teachers, some pertinent questions arise in the minds of many, especially those who are likely to be affected by it. Such questions include: would someone who currently works as a subject teacher in a primary or secondary school and who studied a course related to the subject he teaches, but only has the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) or Bachelor of Arts (B.A) degree, be required to forfeit his/her current teaching position, to be replaced by someone else who has an N.C.E, B.Ed., PGDE, or other education-related qualification in that subject area?

It should be noted that many other factors contribute towards the low quality and falling standard of the educational system apart from the inadequate qualifications of some schoolteachers. These other factors include poor remuneration of teachers, the absence of functional and well equipped libraries in many public and private schools across the country, absence of modern teaching facilities, etc. In addition, the attitude of the students themselves towards the success of their own education, also plays an important role, and should not be taken for granted.

In view of the above, some steps that could be considered as an alternative to the instant removal of “unqualified” or rather, incompetent teachers from the classrooms, in my humble opinion could include the other option of administering competence-based tests for these supposedly “unqualified” teachers, regardless of the educational qualifications they currently possess. This can help to ascertain their level of competence as schoolteachers, and for those who are found competent, make provision for them to remain in the teaching profession, especially if their current employers can express a degree of satisfaction with their performance on the job so far, and can attest to their competence and quality.

Another option could be stipulating other alternative requirements for them, rather than instantly removing them from the classroom or requiring that they go back to school to obtain the required education-related qualifications, especially as they must already have had many years of experience on the job, as well as other equivalent, though not education-related qualifications or these teachers be provided with adequate training and development opportunities perhaps within the schools where they currently work, that will expose them to more advanced methods of performing their duties as schoolteachers, and help them update their skills and competence level. This would be more preferable than requesting that they go back to school to obtain an education-related qualification such as the NCE, B.Ed or PGDE, etc, especially as they must already have spent many years in school to obtain a B.Sc, B.Eng, or B.A, etc, before eventually securing a job as a schoolteacher.

This new requirement can cause them to lose their jobs as teachers – entirely removing them from an occupation that they have come to love and for which they have developed a strong passion.

Daniel Ighakpe

Lagos.

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