We need more teachers in schools, ex-NUT president cries out

THE immediate past national president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Michael Alogba Olukoya, has urged government at federal and state levels to employ additional teachers for public schools in the country.

Olukoya made the call in an exclusive conversation with Tribune Education. He also declared that teachers are prepared for the return of history as a stand alone subject in secondary schools across the country.

However, he said while there are many qualified and competent history teachers in the service, there is a general shortfall in many subjects, and that more teachers could be employed from many education graduates currently roaming the streets seeking employment.

“Government should engage and retrain them rather than leaving them to their fate,” he said.

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Olukoya reasoned that government ought not to have removed history from secondary school curriculum in the first place.

According to him, the law of morality says if you don’t know where you are coming from, it will be difficult to know where exactly you are going.

“Looking at our curriculum in the past, History and Latin languages were mandatory for all students. Apart from sharpening one’s intellect, many students then took those heroes and heroines they read about as role models; and that built the culture of nationalism, patriotism, and civic responsibility in them.

“That is why as a union, we always recommend the need to recourse to the past,” Olukoya explained.

Olukoya expressed his displeasure with government’s lack of political will in providing quality and quantitative education to the citizenry, saying it is not enough for government to say it wants to declare a state of emergency in education, restructure or redesign curriculum, but to go ahead and implement those policies.