The Federal Ministry of Education on Thursday reiterated its resolve to recruit 500,000 new teachers to enhance academic activities in the 104 Unity Colleges across the country.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, announced this while speaking with newsmen on the sideline of the inauguration of a female hostel at the Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba. Anwuka said that teachers recruited by the various PTA’s of the colleges would be given opportunity for employment during recruitment.
The Federal Government recently announced plan to recruit 500,000 teachers in order to bridge the gap of pupil-teacher ratio. The government also emphasised her desire to improve the quality of education in the country at all levels as well reposition the entire sector.
According to Anwuka, the teachers recruited by the PTAs are a demonstration of goodwill by the parents as critical stakeholders in the sector. He, however, pointed out that only qualified teachers would be given consideration to teach in the nation’s schools.
“The PTA teachers in the colleges will be given the opportunity for employment but they must avail themselves the requisite training. “We will only employ qualified teachers and this is because we want only the best for our schools. “If we end up employing the entire 500,000 that we intend to employ, it will be tied to getting the best with the requisite teacher training knowledge. “Gone are the days when anyone would be saying I want employment, I want to teach, even without the necessary training.
“This had done a lot of damage to the system and we want to correct it now,’’ the minister said. He lauded the management of Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, for the achievements and urged it to ensure that the projects were jealously guarded. Anwuka also promised to replace some of the non-functional and moribund machines and equipments in some of the workshop in the college. Earlier in his address, the Principal of the college, Rev. Chris Ugorji, identified inadequate laboratories as one of the challenges facing the college. He stressed that the existing science laboratory was small and grossly inadequate, compared to the number of students offering science subjects in external examinations.
The principal said that the 12 workshops, which houses 19 trade subjects, have giant machines that required efficient power generating sets. He added that the institution’s limited financial resources had affected the school in the use of many of the imported facilities in the college.
Also speaking, the college’s PTA Chairperson, Mrs Oby Igwillo, said that the construction of the hostel was borne out of the need to cushion the effect of acute accommodation challenges in the college. She said that the construction of the 1,200 bed-space hostel took the association 15 months to complete. Igwillo described the completion of the project as a major relief to the parents and the college management.