Dearth of English, Maths teachers hits Kwara schools

Dearth of English Language ­teachers has hit public schools in Kwara State as only one teacher is available for 122 pupils, while only one Mathematics teacher handles 158 pupils.

This was contained in the Kwara State Annual Education Sector Performance Report of 2012, carried out by the State Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development.

Apart from these two most important subjects, the report also added that teacher-pupil ratio for Civic Education is one to 178; one to 130 in Geography; while a Computer Studies teacher handles 158 pupils.

A copy of the report obtained by our correspondent on Thursday also revealed a ratio of one Biology teacher to 105 pupils and one Literature teacher to 117 pupils. This is a far cry from an average of one teacher to 25 pupils recommended by UNESCO.

 However, the state Education Commissioner, Alhaji Saka Onimago, said there was no scarcity of teachers in the state.

He, however, admitted that it needed more teachers in sciences and science-related subjects.

“I will not take it that the state is lacking teachers.   It is not peculiar to Kwara State. Kwara is a model particularly with our education reform agenda. Some states are coming to Kwara to see our reform agenda.  We have quality assurance which other states do not have,” he said.

But a further breakdown of the report revealed that 48,352 Agricultural Science pupils were being taught by 554 teachers; 68,440 Biology Science pupils are being handled by 654 teachers; 341 teachers teach 22,798 Chemistry pupils, while 94 Civic Education teachers handle 16,748.

Also, 773 pupils of Clothing and Textile are being taught by 17 teacher;  963 pupils of French are being handled by 21 teachers, 45,764 Geography pupils have 353 teachers; while 10 History teachers teach 575 pupils.

According to the report, 17, 101 pupils of English Literature are being taught by146 teachers;  23,255 Physics pupils by 250 teachers and 32, 369 pupils of Yoruba Language have 291 teachers.

The Sector Performance Report also stated that  30,578 pupils of other subjects not listed above were being taught by 1,759 teachers.

Onimago, however, said increased enrolment brought about by the state government’s free education policy was responsible for the trend. The commissioner revealed that the state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, had approved the recruitment of about 200 teachers for the basic education cadre.

He added that the governor was also considering recruitment of more teachers for senior secondary schools across the state.

Onimago also claimed that the teacher-student ratio in the state tallied with that at the federal level.

“The position of the state government in terms of the teachers we have both at the basic education as well as those who are in senior secondary is that if you look at the  ratio on ground, you will see that it tallies with the requirements even at the federal level.

“But with the free tuition policy of the state government, you will notice that the number of enrolment this year has increased very highly. For instance, I was at Lade some time ago, I discovered that the enrolment in JSS 1 was as high as 135. That is a class that was not up to 35 pupils in a year in the past.  With this type of development, there is no doubt that we still need more teachers. The governor has approved that about 200 teachers should be recruited for the basic education,” he said.



-- Punch