Before engaging jobless graduates as teachers

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, recently announced the intention of the Federal Government to convert most of the unemployed graduates to teachers in a bid to tackle the perennial problem of graduate unemployment, adding that all youths in the country were not entitled to the N5,000 monthly stipend promised by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government, hence the basis for putting in place the teacher recruitment programme.

Ngige had clarified that contrary to the widely-held opinion that the N5,000 was meant for all youths, only the vulnerable ones would benefit from the stipend. The minister further said that, “Most unemployed graduates would be converted to teachers. The move is equally aimed at boosting the education sector. For the social safety needs, we have budgeted N500bn for the next fiscal year. We have captured unemployed graduates. We are doing two things; we get those who read Law, Engineering and other disciplines but do not have jobs. We would train them for nine months and convert them to teachers.”

This initiative is a right step in the right direction. The adverse effect of joblessness can better be imagined. Apart from the restiveness that is a fallout of such a situation, there is the challenge of under-utilisation of human capacity that should be at the centrepoint of economic development. Over the years and despite the existence of series of programmes, the rate of unemployment has remained ever high and alarming. However, as laudable as the plan is, there is the need to exercise caution before its implementation to ensure that the nation’s educational system is better off.

It is commonly known that Nigerian teachers suffer from poor pay and poor working conditions. In most states, teachers are usually the last to be paid their meagre salaries at the end of the month, if they are paid at all. Many states still owe teachers several months of accumulated salaries and allowances while the retired ones do not receive their entitlements as and when due. A combination of these factors have made teaching – a noble profession – to be rendered unattractive and relegated to the background.

Apart from the problem of infrastructural decay, other quality assurance measures appear to have been lost over the years in our schools. It will be recalled that there was a time in Nigeria when certain practices, such as writing of lesson notes, gave teaching its professional edge, which was made mandatory. Today, hardly do teachers come to classrooms to teach with well-prepared and supervised lesson notes. Many of them simply dish out teaching instructions without making adequate preparation, which could largely account for why students fail to comprehend what is being taught. It is not an exaggeration that most Nigerian teachers are not computer literate. Generally speaking, many unemployed graduates find themselves in teaching just to earn a living and for want of other things to do. Even those trained as teachers have abandoned the profession for more paying jobs. Quality education remains the rock on which any progressive nation can build its future while the cornerstone of this foundation lies with the teachers.

If Nigeria is to make any remarkable progress, teachers and the teaching profession should be accorded dignity in all respects. Unfortunately, not much premium has been placed on effective educational planning, curriculum, budgeting and personnel, among others. This should not be so. Education should indeed be well-funded, be given priority by governments at all levels and be spared of unnecessary politicking.

The sorry state of our schools is not too different from what is obtainable in the nation’s higher institutions. Teachers are products of tertiary institutions such as colleges of education and universities.