Nigerian school teachers to be henceforth certified , says minister

The Minister of State for Education, Prof.
Anthony Anwuka, says there is a large number
of unqualified teachers at the nation’s basic
education level.
Anwuka made the remark at the Annual
Education Conference organised by the
Education Data, Research and Evaluation in
Nigeria Initiative (EDOREN), in Abuja on
Monday.
The minister said inefficient application of
evidence in policy and planning had hampered
production of qualified teachers for that level
of education.
“Effective planning and administration in the
system has been made difficult because of
poor data collection and analysis; hence large
number of unqualified teachers in the system.
“Over the years, what we have are pretenders
to teaching who have taken advantage of lack
of regulation in the system.
Henceforth, anybody that will be in the
classroom must have a basic qualification in
education’’, he said.
Anwuka said the ministry will use the outcome
of the conference to improve the education
sector.
Pai Obanya, Prof. Emeritus, Institute of
Education, University of Ibadan, said data
drought was a major challenge to the
education sector.
According to him, data collection and analysis
must be taken seriously to address lack of
meaningful access to education.
He said data had three key elements namely:
figures, facts and feelers, which must be
factored in.
“You do not stop at figures alone, you must go
for the facts; facts involve breaking down the
figures. Feelers appear when you begin to
interrogate figures; for example, what type of
homes do boys who drop out of school come
from? Let us go back and take care of data
drought in the society for effective
planning’’, he said.
Earlier, Prof. Oladele Akogun, ENDOREN’s
Country Director, Nigeria, said the network
was aimed at embedding research, evaluation
and learning in education sector.
He said ENDOREN sought to enhance
capacities to generate, use quality educational
data, research and evaluation for policy and
strategy making through support from the
Department for International Development
(DFID).
The 2015 conference was organised in
collaboration with the Federal Ministry of
Education, British Council and United Nations
International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The theme is “Making Evidence Work for Basic
Education Policy and Practice in Nigeria.’’