Professor Garba Maitafsir, Director General of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), revealed a shocking encounter with a PhD student who struggled to write his own name—a situation he attributes to poor teacher quality rather than systemic educational failure.
Speaking at a one-day workshop titled “Teachers Issues in Conflict and Protracted Crisis Settings: Documenting the Effectiveness of the Kaduna Teacher Reforms,” Maitafsir, as reported by Vanguard, stressed the importance of enhancing teacher quality for improving Nigeria’s education system.
He urged that stricter measures be taken to assess teachers’ competencies.
ing this stance, Adamu Makadi, Chairman of the Teachers Service Board (TSB) in Kaduna State, noted that the Kaduna government has prioritized teacher quality through a comprehensive education reform.
“There is nothing wrong with our system of education; the problem is the quality of teachers,” he stated.
The reforms, he explained, have revolutionized teacher recruitment, deployment, and retention in Kaduna, ensuring only qualified individuals serve in classrooms.
Teachers, he added, now earn about 27% more than other civil servants in comparable roles to attract and retain talent.
Makadi highlighted that recruitment is now digitalized and open to all qualified candidates, allowing for transparency and competency-based deployment.
“The State Government under Senator Uba Sani has done a lot towards ensuring that competent and qualified teachers are retained in Kaduna State through provision of incentives including special allowances over other civil servants,” he explained.
Professor Oladele Akogun, Regional Research Director at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), stressed the need for education policies that align with practice, noting that Nigeria’s policy of free, compulsory education up to age 18 remains largely unimplemented.
He argued that teachers should be valued as highly as medical doctors, saying, “Teachers must be handled carefully the way Medical Doctors are treated,” warning that neglecting teachers could harm future generations.
