By Tony Adibe
A former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), and Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Osita Okechukwu has advocated for the implementation of UNESCO’s 20% requirement in order to improve Teachers’ standard in Nigeria.
Answering questions from journalists during the Igwa Nshi annual festival, at Eke in Udi Local Government Area, Enugu State, Okechukwu bemoaned the poor standard of teachers nationwide as demonstrated by their poor result in a nationwide examination conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
NewsBits recalls that the Director of Certification and Licensing at the Council, Dr. Jacinta Ezeahurukwe, disclosed recently in a statement that in the nationwide examination, 4,169, representing 32.38% failed out of 8, 705 candidates, representing 67.62%.
Okechukwu emphasised that poor teachers’ standard means poor students’ standard, more so when 4,169 teachers across Nigeria failed the 2025 Batch ‘A’ Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
Okechukwu appealed to Federal, State, and Local Governments to, as a matter of urgent national importance, adhere strictly to the 15-20% UNESCO recommendation for total public expenditure on education to halt teachers’ poor standard.
According to him, education should receive a 20% premium in our total budget allocation because Nigeria’s greatest resource is human capital development, especially when we enjoy an uncommon 70% youth demographic advantage in an aging, competitive world.
Okechukwu said, “I am pained over the heartbreaking crisis of inadequate funding and poor quality in our education system. To be frank, we need an urgent paradigm shift to increase investments in education and learning; for with our uncommon 70% youth demographic advantage, we can comfortably outsource skilled labour to the global community.”
