Danbello and Shortage of Teachers in Bauchi State

I could not see this skit among recent Danbello’s posts. I wish I can shed some light there on the education aspect of his skit on Bauchi State without holding a brief for its present Commissioner of Education.

Yes. The popular thing is to believe that there is a shortage of teachers in public schools and in rural areas especially— he correctly mentioned.

Facts

But there is the need for a deeper appreciation of the issue because the facts speak differently, for Bauchi State at least. As at the time I became the Commissioner of Education, the teacher-student ratios in the State were 1:28 and 1:19 for Basic Education schools and SSS respectively, which are adequate by the standards of developing countries. So even if the Governor does not employ more teachers he may not attract much blame. Amma ba a nan gizo ke saka ba.

There are two pressing problems in every State regarding the demography of teachers apart from their totals: their distribution and specialisation.

Demography

Teachers understandably lobby to be in urban areas—that is state capital and local government headquarters and towns along highways and border areas. It is ideal for the Ministry of Education, SUBEB and LEAs to ensure a fair distribution that will not starve rural areas of teachers. But rural enrolment does not help matters.

More teachers are required in urban areas because that is where the school populations are disturbingly high. A classroom in an urban area can be more than the population of a whole school in a rural area. Sometimes due to low enrolment or attendance—or even both—in many rural areas the whole school of not more than say 25 children has to be merged into a single class. Why would you post more than a teacher to that school? Many times, such schools originated from political pressure against existing regulations. Contrast this with a school in an urban area whose population exceeds 4,000. It is natural to send many teachers to such a school.

Rural North is sparsely populated, a feature which, while being an advantage in agriculture especially, is highly detrimental to access to education. In fact, it is the highest contributor to the phenomenon of out-of-school children. The problem is there even in rural senior secondary schools where I saw many with just 30, 60 or even 8 students.

Disruption

Another thing to consider is the social implication of transferring teachers always. Normally, 5 years is the maximum period of stay for a teacher in one station. This rule is hardly applied. I flatly refused to use it because it would mean transferring 33 teachers at the SSS level every week, disrupting the lives of their families for a salary that does not exceed a token, and to schools where there is no accommodation and other facilities for them as it used to be 50 years ago. So we transferred teachers only on personal requests or for administrative reasons like serious need, decongestion or as a mild disciplinary measure. When I was managing the Special Schools Management Board in the 2000s, I didn’t permit unsolicited transfers except for new principals and vice principals.

Specialisation

The second problem is area of specialisation of teachers. Of course, there are shortages of teachers in science subjects and English while there are many teachers in arts. A particular problem is that of excess IRK teachers. What do you do as an administrator in a political era where any slight effort to balance up things is greeted with so much condemnation in the larger public and discomfort in government house? This can only be corrected by prudent future recruitments and when both the public and the politicians are ready for it because it will require the painful disengagement of some teachers and replacing them with the desired ones.

All said, employing more good and desired teachers is welcome.

Thank you.

Dr Aliyu U. Tilde
Former Commissioner of Education
Bauchi State.