Nigeria had a shortage of 277, 537 teachers at the basic level, Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hamid Bobboyi, said, citing a National Personnel Audit (NPA) on Public and Private Basic Education Schools in the country conducted by the commission.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, Mr. Bobboyi said that the NPA indicated that while 73 percent of those teaching in public schools were qualified teachers, only 53 per cent of teachers in private schools were qualified to teach.

“Our hope is that with the current reforms that are being put in place where you attract the best candidates into the teaching profession and compensate them adequately, the narrative will change,” he said.

He noted that it was essential for teachers to be trained professionally, hence the need to prioritise quality of teaching.

Mr. Bobboyi noted that there were challenges in getting qualified teachers to teach the children in the country, though the federal education ministry was trying to address this.

He said the commission had designated 10 percent of the entire amount it received from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to Teacher Professional Development, through the States’ Universal Basic Education Boards.

“We remain the biggest teacher development agency in the country, not even the National Teachers’ Institute or any other agency.

” That is something that is very important for us to realise that we pump in a minimum of N10 billion every year for Teacher Professional Development in this country,” Mr. Bobboyi said.

He said that even though the year 2020 was very challenging, due to the  COVID-19 pandemic that led to lockdown of the country, including closure of schools for the most part, the commission had been working hard in many areas, including support for the provision of e-learning and other measures in response to the pandemic.