By NewsBits
Although Nigeria still battles with exodus of her medical personnel migrating to Europe and North America, the same scenario is currently playing out in the education sector with the United Kingdom commencing employment of qualified Nigerian teachers from February.
Eligible teachers in Nigeria can now apply to work in schools in the United Kingdom, courtesy of a programme by the UK Department of Education published in its website in December 2022. To stand a chance, applicants will be required to have qualified teacher status (QTS), a qualification awarded by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), equivalent to certificates issued by Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
The UK’s Department of Education listed Nigeria among the predominantly African and Asian countries that are now eligible to apply. Teachers in Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Singapore, South Africa, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe as well as Nigeria are expected to start applying by February this year.
“From 1 February 2023, teachers from all eligible countries will have to show they meet a consistent set of criteria for the award of QTS. Over time, this route will be opened to qualified teachers from every country outside the UK. This will ensure all non-UK teachers awarded QTS meet the same high standards, while also increasing opportunities for highly qualified teachers wherever they trained,” the notice read.
Giving further details, the UK government said a minimum of two years of teaching experience is needed to be eligible for qualified teacher status.
“To apply for assessment only QTS, you do not need a formal teacher training qualification. However, you must have: a minimum of 2 years’ teaching experience; a first (bachelor’s) degree from a UK or non-UK university an English language qualification which is the same standard as a Grade 4 GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education); a maths qualification which is the same standard as a grade 4 GCSE to teach children aged 3 to 11 in primary school and a physics, chemistry or biology (science) qualification which is the same standard as a grade 4 GCSE,” the notice reads.
350,000 Qualified
From data at Teacher’s Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) website, Blueprint weekend gathered that about 350,000 Nigerian teachers are qualified for such employment from a pool of 1.5 million.
Grave Danger
In a chat with our reporter, the Executive Director, Education as a Vaccine (EVA) a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Mrs Oluwatoyin Chukwudozie, said the policy portend grave danger as it could rob Nigeria of her future.
She said: “Professionally certificated Nigerian teachers are likely to join the mass emigration train from February this year. The drain of teachers will be coming against the backdrop of the exodus of Nigerian medical personnel to Europe, North America and Middle East, among other regions of the world.
“No fewer than 7,256 Nigerian-trained nurses left this country for the UK between March 2021 and March 2022, according to figures issued last May by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of the United Kingdom, which also reported that Nigeria had the third highest number of foreign trained nurses practising in that country, coming after India and The Philippines.
“Other reports, late last year, indicated that nearly 900 Nigerian doctors were licensed to practice in the UK within two months. According to the General Medical Council, which licenses and maintains the official register of medical practitioners in the UK, 8,737 doctors trained in Nigeria were practising in the UK as at September 2021, a number certain to have risen much higher by now.
“Now, it will be teachers in the brain drainpipe. Mass emigration of teachers portends a more ruinous impact on Nigerian nationhood even than the emigration of doctors.
“Countries coming for Nigerian professionals are not to blame. After all, it is ancient wisdom that when you do not value what you have, others who do will come and take it off you. Just like the health system, the Nigerian education sector is so derelict today that the elite, most government officials inclusive, can’t entrust their wards to it and would rather take those wards abroad for foreign education. But the challenge has never been with teacher competency, as the new UK policy proves, but with systemic defects owing to inadequate funding and poor incentivisation.”
More Teachers Needed
Similarly, in a chat with our reporter, a Professor of Education Psychology, Eunice Udida Ochefu, said: “Teachers play essential roles in education, most especially in the lives of their students. Teachers don’t only teach; they act as alternative parents to students. They counsel, mentor and correct students when they need to. Their roles are so important that every profession must pass through them.
“Teachers are important because they change lives, inspire dreams, and push the limits of human potential. Little wonder the saying that no nation can develop above the quality of its teachers.
“If a brain drain happens in our education sector, it will do more than increase the ratio of educators to students. The quality of any education system depends on the quality of its intellectual pool. Last month, the registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria noted that over 260 teachers migrated to Canada this year. If our number of qualified teachers continues to dwindle, it’ll eventually affect the quality of students produced.
“It’s important to remember that applicants for the UK teaching jobs don’t need formal teaching qualifications. However, they must have a Bachelor’s degree, meaning they’d be skilled in other areas. If we lose most of our skilled labour to migration, our economic and technological development will remain in the trenches.
“A good way for the country to manage this situation would be to increase the incentives for the academic staff across all public schools, provide more job opportunities with attractive salaries for graduates, and make the work environment and culture more conducive.”
