80% of Teachers in the north are unqualified - NTI

Over 80% percent of all school teachers in most states in the north are  unqualified for the job, National Teachers’ Institute, NTI, has said.

 Director-General of the Institute, Dr. Aminu Sharehu, made the assertion yesterday in Zaria, Kaduna State, at a national conference on Quality Assurance and Control in Teacher Education, organised by the Federal College of Education, Zaria.

 He said that over 80% percent of teachers in the North are under-qualified because there was no motivation.

 “You need to train and retrain teachers because the National Certificate in Education, NCE, is just a start point.

 In the teaching profession, we do not have learned people, but learning people because we believe that there is no end to learning.

 “So it is only lawyers that are proudly calling themselves learned.

 As for what are really responsible for poor qualification of teachers in the north, I will keep that for another day.

 “But there is need for increase in teachers’ salary and continuous increase in their remuneration to make them better teachers.”

 Governor Yero, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Education, Mohammed Usman, said: “The Federal Ministry of Education stipulates that the minimum teaching qualification in our schools should be NCE. “But majority of teachers we have today in the system are not NCE holders.

 So how can they qualify to teach the new curriculum? “As a measure to improve education in the state, Governor Muhktar Yero has given an approval to recruit about 1,800 teachers.