Nigeria is facing a severe shortage of teachers, with an estimated gap of 1.2 million educators needed to adequately cover the country’s classrooms, according to Rabiu Adamu, Chairperson of the Governing Council of the Federal College of Education, Ofeme Ohuhu, Abia State. Adamu highlighted this alarming deficit during the matriculation ceremony of the pioneer students of the National Certificate of Education (NCE) program at the college.
The ideal teacher-to-student ratio, as advocated by education experts, is one teacher to 25 students, but in many Nigerian schools, this ratio is grossly imbalanced, with one teacher managing up to 300 students. This imbalance is detrimental to the quality of education and learning outcomes nationwide.
Recent data from the Universal Basic Education Commission shows only about 915,913 teachers are available to serve approximately 31.7 million pupils in public and private primary schools, underscoring the scale of the crisis. The shortage is more acute in rural areas and affects government efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 for inclusive and quality education by 2030.
Efforts to address this include the establishment of new colleges like the Federal College of Education, Ofeme Ohuhu, which recently matriculated its first cohort of 153 students across six schools and 29 academic programs dedicated to teacher training. Scholarships and infrastructural support from philanthropists and government agencies are key to bolstering these initiatives.
Educationists and policymakers urge a sustained focus on teacher recruitment, training, welfare improvement, and retention strategies to close the gap. This will require collaborative efforts involving government, community stakeholders, and private sectors to ensure Nigeria’s future generations receive quality education.