One of the major challenges confronting the successful delivery of education at primary and junior secondary education levels is the large number of unqualified teachers who teach there. This fact impinges negatively on the quality of basic education.

The results of the Personnel Audit conducted recently by UBEC indicates that there were 627,550 teachers at the basic education sub-sector (primary and junior secondary schools). Out of this figure, 92,756 teachers were in the junior secondary schools while 534,794 were teaching in primary schools.

This is a big gap because primary education level nationwide requires 872,971 teachers ideally. Out of this 534,974 primary school teachers, only 294,884 (i.e. 55.2%) are qualified, leaving a shortfall of 578,087 from the ideal requirement.

Although the Junior Secondary School level which requires 93,337 teachers presently has 92,756 teachers, only 73,729 are qualified to teach at this level, with these shortfalls creating a gap in the teacher requirement at the basic education level.

The report also informs that there were 24,422,918 pupils at the primary school level and 3,266,789 students in the 7,129 junior secondary schools visited.

Offering suggestions on ways of closing the gap, the UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Modibbo Mohammed says there is the need for training institutions and the government to step up activities toward increasing the number of qualified teachers, adding that the Special Teacher Upgrading Programme is an initiative to reduce the number of unqualified teachers.

He further stressed the urgency of recruiting more qualified teachers, reiterating that the introduction of the Federal Teachers' Scheme (FTS) by the Federal Government under which NCE teachers are employed temporarily for two years by the Federal Government and are posted to various states, is meant to address the shortages of teachers.

Forty thousand NCE teachers were recruited under the Federal Teachers' Scheme in November 2006 to teach in primary schools while 5,000 have been enlisted this year to teach Mathematics, Science, Technology and English Language in junior secondary schools nationwide.

He, however, lamented that state governments, which are expected to reabsorb these FTS teachers after the two year service, fail to do so, creating a shortfall in the teacher requirement.

Dr Mohammed touched on measures already taken by UBEC to address the issues of teacher quality and shortage.

Among these efforts is the allocation of 15% of the 70% Matching Grants for Teacher Professional Development. Between 2005 and 2006, 30, 798 teachers and care givers for ECCDE, 671,791 teachers for primary schools and 136,475 teachers for junior secondary school teachers were trained on various methodologies of teaching, effective school management, computer skills, HIV/AIDS awareness and so forth.

Other major ways of addressing the challenges facing the implementation of the UBE programme, according to the report, include the need to procure 96,545,388 textbooks, build 33,727 laboratories, 33,727 workshops, 33,727 libraries, 80,978 teachers' toilet, 301,190 classrooms, 445,379 head teacher/teacher furniture, procure 130,485,756 play equipment as well as the need to employ 1,307,836.

The report also cites other areas which need to be addressed as including low commitment of states to ECCDE, inadequate provision for nomadic and other migrant groups as well as over-aged children included in the out-of-school figures; high illiteracy rate of 55.5% and the planned exit of the Education Trust Fund from basic education funding which will deplete the total resources available to the basic education sub-sector by at least N22 billion annually.

Listed among the problems confronting the implementation of UBE are the lack of synergy among the implementing agencies; 23% girl - child drop-out rate and 15% boy-child drop-out rate in the primary school; 44% drop-out rate for girls and 39.3% for boys in junior secondary schools and the high figure of about 10 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.