Education: Sani Uba Decries Mass Failure, Poor Quality Of Teachers In Country



As bill for establishment of Federal of College Education, Kaduna, scales second reading.

Senator Sani, Uba representing Kaduna Central, has expressed his concern over the poor quality of teachers in the country, stating that schools no longer employ teachers who had acquired teacher formal training qualification(s).

The Kaduna Senator made this assertion on Wednesday’s Senate plenary
during the presentation of the second reading of bill sponsored by himself titled “A Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Federal College of Education Giwa, Kaduna State and for other related matter thereof,2019 (SB.121) “.

Sani, during his presentation noted that the mass failures recorded in WAEC,UTME and other public examinations was a result of the deficit in the quality of teachers in schools in the country.

He said “The statistics is very scary with the population of our out school children in Nigeria which has risen from 10.5 million to 13.2 million and a massive failure of students in WAEC and NECO examinations. For those who passed out of secondary schools getting admission into tertiary institutions is now a Herculean task due to limited spaces.



“In 2017,1.8 million candidates who registered for the UTME were jostling for 850,000 admission spaces. A key issue that has been raised in respect to the falling standard of education is quality of teachers in our primary and secondary schools.

“There was a time in Nigeria when teachers colleges and colleges of education were given priority attention by the government. The quality teachers of teachers it produced, raised the standard of education and teachers commanded the respect and admiration of Nigerians.

Teaching has currently become an all comers affair, schools hardly insist on employing those who have gone through formal teachers training. The consequence has been a steady drop in the quality of students produced.

It is time we refocus attention on teacher’s colleges and colleges of Education.

“We must address the quality of teacher’s deficit in our educational system, the proposed Federal College of Education Giwa, Kaduna State .

We owe our children quality education, that is the only way we can compete effectively in the global economy. Quality education is the key to unlocking opportunities. As leaders, we are in a better position to understand and appreciate the value of education as a critical tool for economic growth and development.

It is, therefore our responsibility as representatives of the people to ensure that we channel funds to serve the most critical needs of the people amongst which is the provision of qualitative education.

Senator Gyang Istifanus (Plateau North), speaking in the same vein in support of the bill decried the alarming rate of out of school children in the North. He called on the Government to pay attention to teacher training noting that enrollment of children in schools was insufficient to address the educational challenges.

He said” We have witnessed the issue of out school children that has characterised the Northern part of the country and particularly the Northwest and steps are being taken to address this issue through aggressive enrollment of pupils and students.

One major issue is lack of teachers that meet up the teaching requirement, like in Kaduna State and became an issue that generated a lot of attention in the country . This requires that we need to have an institution that will train teachers that will be deployed to provide the necessary manpower in schools. It is not enough to have education infrastructure, it is not enough to have enrollment but it’s crucial to have the right staff and teachers that will man the school so established. I support the establishment of the institution (the bill), so that we do not have only the hardware but these software that is the teachers that will man the institutions.

The Senate referred the bill to the Senate committee on Tertiary Institutions for further consideration with a mandate to report back within four weeks. 

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