By Rasak Musbau
According to 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen, can change the world”. Across the world, enrolment in primary schools is rising rapidly, as a result of population rise and efforts to ensure more children receive primary education in line with millennium development goal of universal primary education. However, the quality of education is being compromised in many countries as they can’t get enough teachers into classrooms. This global teacher shortage is a setback for all development efforts.
Though in Nigeria our curriculum is rated high, teachers’ quality and number remains very low. Also, physical infrastructure in most primary and secondary schools is generally below standard and grossly insufficient across the nation. Plainly put, it is from the foundation stage of primary education that the trend of what we generally lament as half-baked graduates originates. It is, therefore, irrefutable that there is no theory of change that could really help us if we don’t take care of our education from primary and secondary schools levels.
Evidence shows that for teachers, their professional knowledge and skills are the most important factor for quality education. If this is unquestionable they must be treated as such. This requires stronger training upfront and continual professional development and support, to enhance performance and learning outcomes. In Nigeria, we know this and yet, far too often, teachers remain under-qualified and poorly paid, with low status, and excluded from education policy matters and decisions that concern and affect them.
Teachers hold the key to a better future for all. They inspire, challenge and empower innovative and responsible global citizens. They get children into school, keep them there and help them learn. Every day, they help to build the inclusive knowledge societies we need for tomorrow and the century ahead. …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
