Where are school districts in Nigeria?

Sir, Those in charge of policy always create red herrings by blaming unqualified teachers for the rot in the system instead of the system. There are several school’s without delineated zones for them in Nigeria. It was shocking in Diobu in Port Harcourt some years ago to see a school very close a brothel .

On whose shoulder lie the responsibility to administer zones for the citing of schools in Nigeria?

Teachers in Nigeria do not have teachers clubs where they can go to unwind during holidays and meet new friends. I doubt if there are ICT centers for teachers anywhere in Nigeria. Many teachers who have served for many years, ten to twenty sometimes has never attended one training course/seminar/workshop to boost performance. How can any professional succeed without refresher courses?

State governments are not bothered about what happens in private schools where recruitment are carried out by individual schools without the approval/supervision of state education management board. To remove quackery in the teaching profession, state school’s management board must administer all test to all would-be teachers be it in the public and private sector. Aside from standardization, this also is an avenue to generate money to the government especially by administering entry tests to teachers in private schools. School management should pay government for this exercise.

But do the state school’s management boards have the manpower to do so, how can especially with the nickel voted for education in the yearly budget?

Most curricula in private schools are foreign and not local. In Britain the curricula is English not Nigerian. So our administrators need to get to brass-tacks. Address the systemic problems, and not scapegoat teachers most of whom were recruited to assuage constituencies by politicians.

This country has too many poor regulations and implementation status. If teachers are paid less than bankers, mechanics/carpenters/unskilled workers in oil platforms, then we should expect to attract numb skulls in the teaching profession.

If soldiers are given medals for valour after war efforts and teachers who groom children for the future are not recognized then it shows how serious we are as a people.

How many teachers do you see on the award radar organized by people who must give those awards to governors?

How many teachers live in government housing estates, built their own houses and drive own cars? Yet Nigeria expects the best from teachers in a failed system.

Simon Abah wrote from Abuja