Report: 22.1% of Teachers in Borno State Incompetent, Untrainable

*Zulum vows to sanitise education sector

Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri

Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum yesterday described as “very scary” findings submitted to him by a Committee he had constituted and tasked with conducting basic literacy and numeracy competency assessment of 17,229 Local Education Authority teachers across 27 local government areas (LGAs) of the State.

The report revealed that out of 17,229 teachers across the 27 LGAs, only 5,439 representing 31.6 per cent were competent to teach, while 3, 815 teachers representing 22.1 per cent were not competent to teach and were also not trainable.
The State’s Commissioner for Education, Engr. Lawan Abba Wakilbe, presented the committee’s report to Zulum at the Government House in Maiduguri.

According to a statement, members of the committee including chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board, Bulama Kagu, a professor of education, was in attendance.

The report also revealed that 7,975 teachers representing 46.3 per cent were found not fully competent but trainable.
The report also revealed that 2, 389 teachers representing 13.9 per cent have been teaching without any formal qualification from any institution.

A breakdown of the report’s findings across the 27 local government areas showed, from the worst indices, that out of 224 teachers in Abadam Local Government Area in northern Borno, only 14 were competent to teach, stating that 74 were untrainable while 136 could be trained.
The report further stated that out of Kala-Balge’s 272 teachers, only 21 were competent to teach with 118 untrainable and 133 trainable.

Furthermore, the report showed indices for other local government areas from which Maiduguri Metropolitan Council had the highest number of 396 untrainable teachers, followed by Askira-Uba with 281 untrainable teachers, Chibok-268 untrainable teachers, Bama-246 untrainable teachers and Biu also with 219 teachers who could not teach.

The Committee had engaged academics from different education stakeholders in the state before and during assessment tests conducted in January, 2022, across the 27 Local Government Areas of the State.

The numbers were based on the overall number of teachers as some with higher numbers of untrainable teachers have higher number of teachers employed.

Other Local Government Areas showed various numbers of untrainable teachers, with Jere having the fewest-16 untrainable teachers out of 1,159 teachers from which 936 proved competent while 204 were not fully competent but they were trainable.

The report also stated that of all the 17,229 teachers, 1,627 representing 9.4 per cent were degree holders; 8,153 representing 47.3 per cent were NCE holders; 713 representing 4.1 per cent were are teachers grade II certificates’ holders while 2,281 representing 13.2 per cent were SSCE/GCE holders with the remaining 2,389 representing 13.9% not having any formal certificate.

Speaking after receiving the report, Zulum who said the findings were very scary, said the Committee members had informed him that they came across an NCE holder who could not write NCE during the test but yet was teaching students.

“We cannot move Borno forward unless we are able to sanitise our public schools’ system and If I am able to sanitise education, I would have achieved 50 per cent of what I set out to achieve as Governor,” Zulum said.

He noted that he decided to set up the assessment Committee after series of spontaneous assessments of teachers during his regular unscheduled trips to Local Government Areas.

Despite the report, Zulum assured that he would not sack the 3,815 untrainable teachers but would depending on the recommendations made by the Committee, consider approving the transfer of the teachers to areas where they would perform other tasks such as tree planting at the Ministry of Environment.