The Executive Chairman of Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board (ADSUBEB), Mr Mohammed Toungo, has revealed that the state has 6,231 unqualified teachers in its system.
Toungo made this known Friday in Yola while speaking at a North East stakeholders meeting on teachers, organized by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
Toungo said that the state was, however, addressing the challenge through collaboration with the Federal College of Education, Yola to train the affected teachers.
Toungo lauded the TRCN for its commitment to ensure that only qualified teachers were allowed to teach, adding that Adamawa government would work with the council in promoting professionalism in the teaching profession.
In his speech, the Registrar of TRCN, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, said the council would restore the lost glory of teachers by checking quacks and making teaching a profession that is no longer an all-comers affairs.
Ajiboye noted that for the country to get it right in education it must have good and qualified teachers “as no country can rise beyond the level of its teachers”.
He said that the council which has the mandate to determine who are teachers and the standard knowledge and skills required to practice as a teacher among others has so far registered about 1.8 million qualified teachers nationwide.
While noting that the North East has a peculiar problem of non-qualified teachers, Ajiboye urged stakeholders to collaborate with the council to address the challenge.
“President Muhammadu Buhari administration is committed to bringing back the glory of the teaching profession; we need quality teachers for quality education.
“This country will not move until we get teaching right by having good teachers; a good teacher can produce good students even if he trains them under the tree,” Ajiboye said.
The meeting was attended by officials of SUBEB and Teachers Service Commission from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Gombe and Taraba States.