Glamourising teaching will be a major way to attract the youth to the profession, some education administrators have said.

The administrators said on Sunday that scholarship awards, automatic employment improved salary and stipends would attract more people into teaching.

They spoke during interviews against the backdrop of dearth of qualified teachers, especially in core subjects in many schools.

According to the 2022/2023 Universal Basic Education Commission National Personnel Audit Report, there is a shortage of 194,876 teachers in public primary schools in Nigeria.

The report shows that only 499,202 of the 694,078 teachers required at the primary school level were available.

The Provost, Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, Dr Wahab Afeez, said that decline in enrolment of students for the Nigeria Certificate in Examination and Professional Diploma in Education Programmes was getting worrisome.

Describing the situation as unhealthy and disturbing for the teaching profession, Mr Afeez said there was an urgent need for governments to step up efforts in tackling the trend.

According to him, the development is gradually exposing the country to unqualified and unprofessional teachers who may put the future of students at risk.

The provost also appealed to the Federal Government to consider improved welfare package for students in colleges of education to attract more Nigerians into the teaching profession.

He also called on the federal and state governments to consider scholarship awards to prospective students to boost enrolment into colleges of education.

Mr Azeez said that the committee of provosts was making efforts to address the dearth of qualified teachers.

“In the 2022/2023 academic session, we enrolled 382 NCE students and 30 PDE students. For this current 2023/2024 academic session, we have 353 students enrolled for the NCE and 43 for the PDE.

“When compared to what obtained in the previous academic years in the institution, you will discover that the number has dropped. On our part, in 2022, we mounted programmes such as Primary Education Studies as a new NCE course, while PDE programmes are in line with the previous Technical Teachers Certificate,” he said.

Mr Afeez said that all the courses were designed to enable the college to produce well-trained teachers.

The Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University of Education, Otto/ Ijanikin, Prof. Bidemi Lafiaji-Okuneye, urged the federal and state governments to consider re-introduction of payment of stipends to students in colleges of education aside from scholarship.

According to her, there is also the need to give students automatic employment after their training as teachers.

“Teachers reward is no longer in heaven, but on earth. Teachers need to be celebrated more and taken care of with enough benefits. Back in the days, governments used to give students those benefits, while they were undergoing training as teachers, which were definitely part of the attraction to the profession.

“Whatever made them stop that process, I definitely do not know, but the government needs to go back to the good old days. Governments can also give scholarships to our youth to study education, which can help to attract more youths to the programmes.

“Governments and private school owners must intensify efforts to increase salaries and welfare packages as well as other benefits for teachers,” she said.

The vice-chancellor said that about 8,500 graduates had so far been produced by the institution in the last five years.

According to her, the institution admits about 2,000 students yearly.

She noted, however, that some left after the first year, to rewrite the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

According to her, this is because the interest of the students is in getting admission into the university, rather than college of education.

“Before our transmutation from college to university, we discovered that many students who came to the college of education could not get placement into the universities of their choice. They saw it as a last resort. Now that we are a university of education, the number of interested or prospective candidates has increased tremendously, so much that we cannot admit all.

“For instance, over 8,000 candidates applied to this institution last session to study various education courses, but of this number, only the best 3,500 could get admission due to the quota given to us by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. We had to write to JAMB to increase the quota for admission, which made us admit about 4,500 students in the last admission process. “This is our second year as a university, we currently have over 7,000 students at both the 100 and 200 levels,” she said.

Ms Lafiaji-Okuneye warned that employing unqualified teachers in schools would lead to under-development of students, under-development of schools and under-development of teachers.

“Teacher’s training is about passion, deeply knowing how to teach to make students develop interest in all subjects. Governments should have good standards for teachers so that only qualified teachers can be attracted to the teaching profession today and in the future,” she said.

Ms Lafiaji-Okuneye said that LASUED was endowed with quality manpower and adequate infrastructure to broaden, deepen and strengthen the teaching profession in Lagos and Nigeria at large.

The Principal, King’s College, Lagos, Andrew Agada, said that qualified teachers had since been identified as key tools in achieving effective teaching and learning outcomes.

According to him, the success of any human endeavour, particularly in the sphere of education, is linked to the quality of individuals performing the responsibilities.

(NAN)