IN any other circumstance, we would have applauded the Taraba State governor, Dr. Agbu Kefas, for his recent announcement that a master’s degree is the minimum academic qualification for anyone wishing to teach in any of the state’s secondary schools. The governor made the disclosure during a January 7 dinner with journalists in Jalingo, the state capital, adding that the minimum academic qualification for those wishing to teach at the primary school level would be a university first degree. Saying that he aimed “to enhance the state’s education quality”, the governor added: “Our free education policy is not a joke and anybody who stands in the way of achieving this will be crushed.” If Dr. Kefas’ plans come to fruition, it will effectively mark the end of the National Certificate of Education (NCE) as the minimum academic qualification for primary school teachers throughout the state.
We have no doubt that the governor means well, as further evidenced by his promise at the same event to (i) bring history back to the curriculum at the primary and secondary school levels across the state, and (ii) substantially reduce undergraduate tuition for students in the state-owned university. Which raises the question: why, despite this obvious commitment to the improvement of the education sector in the state, are we withholding praise from the governor?
The first reason is that the governor, for all his good intentions, appears not to have done his homework, as the National Policy on Education for the whole country still stipulates the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as the minimum qualification for teaching at the primary school level. Put simply: Dr. Kefas would be breaking the law if he were to proceed with his plan of requiring a bachelor’s degree from primary school teachers. Even if you set this aside, it is not clear where the governor plans to find university graduates from, given their dearth in the state, which ranks in the bottom tier (27th) in the literacy ranking for the whole country. Since the problem facing Taraba State right now is that it cannot even muster enough NCE teachers, it seems unwise to be stipulating a higher bar for those who might want to teach in the state’s primary schools.
The more substantive issue is that the governor, though well-meaning, has made the familiar mistake of equating paper qualification with merit and competence. Yet, if there is anything that the average observer of the education sector in the country knows, it is that, sadly enough, one does not necessarily follow from the other. As we have seen from recent revelations about fake certificates from diploma mills scattered across various African countries, the easiest thing to obtain these days is a paper qualification. Besides, if you want masters degree holders as secondary school teachers and first degree holders as primary school teachers, you must also be willing to pay, in addition to providing an enabling environment for learning. Many state governments have failed to do this over the years. It is a fact that over time, the country has suffered from the ugly spectacle of shoddy policies vaingloriously imposed on public life and ending in further disaster.
The problem that Dr. Kefas is trying to solve is not unique to the state, and the governor should be commended for at least trying to do something about it. That said, the approach he has embraced is deeply flawed and doomed to fail. Serious problems warrant thoughtful consideration and hard thinking. We encourage the governor to have a rethink and go back to the drawing board.
