Nigeria to Employ 1,000 English Language, Mathematics Teachers for 104 Unity Colleges - Minister

The Federal Government plans to employ more than 1,000 English language and Mathematics teachers for the 104 unity colleges in the country,

The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this when he declared open the first phase of continuous professional development programme for Mathematics and English language teachers on Monday in Abuja.

He expressed Federal Government's worry over the poor performance of students of Federal Government colleges in public examinations.

"Let me at this juncture inform all participants that the Federal Government has given approval for the employment of 1000 teachers in English language and Mathematics to bridge the gaps in these two important subjects.

"This is because despite their acknowledged degree of relevance, students across the country have consistently demonstrated poor knowledge of these subjects and under performed in public examinations.

"From the statistics, the national average credit pass in the two subjects has quite unfortunately vacillated between 30 per cent and 37 per cent in the last five years," he said.

"This is a bad omen that is undermining the country’s quest for producing well rounded students and leaders who can creatively and independently contribute to national development."

He said the decision to appoint new mathematics teachers followed a mathematics development needs assessment which showed that the ratio of mathematics teachers to students was 1:350.

According to Mr. Wike, challenges facing basic education in terms of teaching and learning of Mathematics, English language and science subjects are already being addressed.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, MacJohn Nwaobiala, said that English language teachers were not well tutored in the use and teaching of the subject as a medium of instruction.

"This training is therefore a response to the appalling outcome of a mathematics development needs assessment carried out by the ministry and the National Mathematical Centre on simple mathematics test,” he said.

(NAN)