By Babaji Usman BABAJI
PRIMARY and secondary schools across Bauchi State are not only in a decrepit state, but they also lack adequate and qualified teachers. This investigation unveils the dire conditions in the schools and how the state government is looking the other way.
In Mararaban Liman Katagum, an outskirts community in Bauchi local government of Bauchi State, northern Nigeria, 14-year-old Musa Ahmad, sits quietly on the bare floor of a dusty classroom at Government Junior Secondary School (GJSS) Mararaba, scribbling down algebraic equations.
His teacher, *Abdullahi (real name withheld for fear of victimisation), paces before the weary blackboard, trying to explain the lesson. Yet, something seems missing – Musa struggles to comprehend the material. Not because he lacks capacity, but because his teacher apparently lacked a background in mathematics.
Abdullahi, originally employed as a social studies teacher, had been reassigned to teach mathematics due to shortage of qualified teachers in the school.
“I haven’t studied mathematics,” Abdullahi admits,” but I have to teach it. What choice do I have? The students need a teacher, and there’s no one else.”
Abdullahi, a teacher in a school with over 300 students, is a reflection of the shortage of qualified teachers in Bauchi State.
This trend is particularly pronounced in primary and junior secondary schools. Teachers like Abdullahi are assigned to teach subjects such as mathematics, and English language, despite having no formal qualifications in these fields.
During a visit by our reporter to GJSS Mararaba on October 23, 2024, only one teacher was present to manage the entire school. When the reporter returned on November 5, Abdullahi, joined by a fellow teacher and a volunteer, was doing his best to control the crowded classrooms.
“I’m exhausted,” he lamented, slumping into a chair as the volunteer left just four minutes later, leaving him and his colleague to face the challenge alone.
“The truth is; we need more teachers. Right now, we don’t have an agricultural science teacher. Sometimes the Hausa language teacher steps in to help, but it’s not enough.”
Abdullahi explained that, in reality, the school needs at least 25 teachers to function properly, yet only nine are officially assigned, scrolling down the list of names in a faded record book which he said teachers bought with their meagre salaries to keep the school running.
He also lamented about the prevalence of nepotism in employment practices, which compounds their staffing crisis. “Some of the teachers here are sons and daughters of big people. They show up only when they feel like. Others, who want to teach, come from far away and can’t afford transport fares five days a week,” he said.
Abdullahi pointed out another challenge – the proliferation of teachers trained only in Islamic studies. “We have over four Islamic teachers here who can’t teach other subjects, but we have no choice but to ask them to try,” he explained.
“There are graduates and NCE holders in this community, eager and qualified to teach, yet they are sitting at home, their potentials wasted, while our classrooms remain underserved,” he added.
Challenges at every turn
Less than 10 kilometres from GJSS Mararaba, exists a 16-year-old nomadic school staffed by a single teacher, who, for over a decade, worked to educate more than 300 pupils. Tragically, in early 2024, the sole teacher passed away, leaving the pupils stranded in a makeshift shelter, formed by the community.
In Dass local government area, the problem is similar. The administrative officer at Government Junior Secondary School (GJSS), Husaini Wandi spoke about how the lack of teachers affects education.
“We need more teachers,” he said, citing the imbalance in the deployment of the teachers as another problem. “Out of 12 teachers, we have four Islamic teachers and four basic science ones. But we don’t have a single mathematics teacher, which is a core subject essential for the students.
“English is being managed by an NYSC corps member posted here and only one teacher for Physical Health Education (PHE). Yet, we’re responsible for teaching over 200 students. The last time the state recruited new teachers was back in 2014.”
On this reporter’s first visit to the school on October 30, it was under lock. A teacher on a phone call explained that staff had been called to Bauchi for a verification exercise.
When this reporter returned on November 5, three teachers were present. Corroborating on the persistent flaws in education in the state, he continued, “The education system here is pathetic. Teachers often buy registers and other essential materials out of their own pockets or with support from the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association). Every week, we contribute to buying chalk. It’s truly unfortunate.”
Further findings show that in several schools across the state, it is common for one teacher to teach up to multiple subjects in a week. The result is an overburdened, underprepared work.
Many schools under lock
Just like the scene at JSS Wandi and Dabardak in Dass on October 30, where neither teachers nor students were present, JSS Ajili in Misau LG is facing a similar challenge.
A visit to the school on November 6, found it entirely deserted, with doors closed and no sign of staff or students.
“No one showed up, and this is how it often is,” a nearby primary school teacher revealed, adding: “There are only three teachers here, and perhaps they are bored of coming.”
In Giade, like in many places visited, the story is the same. Zankam primary school, was also under lock when the reporter visited the school on October 17, as no teacher was available.
However, a couple of months earlier, the headmaster of the school Alhaji Haruna said there were only two teachers in the school.
Haruna explained the challenges of rotating classes in their classrooms, merging pupils from different grades just to cover the basics.
In Abbakorawa village, the situation is also similar. Only two teachers, the headmaster who travels from a neighbouring community come infrequently and an Arabic teacher.
“The children are not coming due to the lack of teachers,” said Malam Muhammadu, a community elder in Abbakorawa, adding, “If they come one day and don’t meet a teacher, they leave and may not return for the whole week.”
“It pains me, seeing that our children are not attending school, but there is nothing one can do,” he said.
Students as victims
Like Musa in Mararaba, Aisha Sagir, a 16-year-old student in Misau, grieved that, “Our teacher doesn’t seem to understand some topics. In some instances, we have to figure things out ourselves. We don’t know how this thing can work.”
Assessments of the students in various schools in the state revealed a wide gap between the required standard and their current comprehension.
This situation indicates the vast challenges facing education in the state, where understaffed schools leave hundreds of students without adequate knowledge.
The findings discovered that Bauchi State has long struggled with a shortage of qualified teachers, a problem acute in rural and underserved areas.
In 2023, the state government acknowledged that 79 schools in Misau LGA alone had only one teacher each. Yet, the government official revealed that the teacher deficit in the council was better off, compared to other LGs.
“Misau is even better compared to other LGAs. Go to some other schools and see the situation there,” the director of school services of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in Bauchi Korijo Usman, revealed.
He also pointed out that the average class size in the state was 72 students, more than double the 1:35 teacher-student ratio recommended by the Nigerian government.
Impact on teachers
The consequences of the deficit for teachers are dreadful, with many teachers experiencing burnout, as they are forced to prepare lessons for subjects they do not fully understand, Fatima Mohammed, a teacher at a junior secondary school, in Ningi lamented.
“I was employed to teach social studies, but now I am also responsible for English language and on some occasions, agricultural science. Every night I stay up late, trying to read textbooks to make sense of the materials I’m supposed to teach. It’s exhausting.”
This additional workload, coupled with low pay and inadequate resources, has left many teachers like Fatima questioning their career choices.
Her passion for teaching has been eroded by the daily challenges she faces. “I wanted to be a teacher, but now, I feel exhausted and also feel like I am failing my students.”
Despite acknowledging the decade-long challenge, the state government has shown a ‘devil-may-care’ attitude to recruit more teachers. As a result, teachers are left to fill the gaps, often with disastrous consequences.
In schools lacking teachers, classrooms become nearly empty of teachers, or those who teach subjects beyond their field of study resulting in the students becoming lax in attending classes.
This threatens the educational future of young ones, as former head of school services, and one of the stakeholders in the council, Jibrin Saleh, stated.
Saleh, who served in Dass LGA before retiring, described a shattered education system, worsened by the government’s failure to recruit more teachers.
“When I was transferred to Dass in 2016, we had about 800 teachers. By the time I left in 2022, that number had dropped to less than 500,” he said, noting that every year, teachers either retire or pass away without replacement.
This, according to Saleh, is one of the major reasons for the gradual collapse of the educational infrastructure in the state.
“Today, there are 93 schools across Dass LGA, yet many operate with only two to four teachers, even in upper-basic schools where at least 10 teachers should ideally be needed every day to cover a wide range of subjects.”
In those schools, according to Saleh, the shortage forced teachers to teach subjects they weren’t qualified for, thereby compromising students’ learning and comprehension.
“In schools like Gala, Goltukurwa, and Dabardak, some teachers handle multiple subjects outside their specialties, just to keep the curriculum afloat.
He added that this trend not only burdens the teachers but also leaves students without a foundational understanding of key subjects. “The impact on the students is severe; they lack the knowledge needed to advance,” he said.
Volunteers step in
Due to the teacher depletion, young graduates with university degrees, likewise those with qualifications like the National Certificate in Education (NCE) have stepped in as volunteer teachers.
However, they are often compensated with pittance pooled together by the few permanent teachers or go unnoticed.
“These volunteers patriotically contribute, accepting as little as N3,000 a month,” Saleh said, highlighting the sacrifices these aspiring teachers make to support their community despite limited financial recognition.
The impact on students is clear. These volunteer teachers frequently abandon their roles without notice, as seen in Mararaba school.
Saleh himself has three NCE holders and a graduate in his household who are ready to teach but remain unemployed.
Aliyu Usman Tilde, former commissioner for education in the state corroborated that, “The popular thing is to believe that there is a shortage of teachers in public schools and rural areas especially.”
Tilde maintained that employing more skilled teachers would be a welcome step.
He identified the imbalance in the teachers’ specialisation as another pressing challenge in the state.
He said, “the second problem is the area of specialisation of 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 the 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.”
In 2023, Abdullahi Abubakar, a specialist with the USAID-funded “LEARN to Read” project, lamented that basic education in Bauchi State was in bad condition, with 207 public schools across the state having no single teacher.
He revealed this in Kano at a two-day orientation programme for the state legislators on their oversight roles which was reported by several media houses, including ThisDay and Daily Trust.
Low performance
Reports indicate that Bauchi State students consistently underperform in national exams compared to their peers in many states.
The 2019 SSCE performance for students in Bauchi State public schools published by NBS shows that only 23 per cent of the students got credit in five subjects, including mathematics and English, taking 34th position out of the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.
In 2020, 24 per cent of the students got the five subjects, while in 2021, the state made a stride to clinch better steps with nearly 68 per cenr of the total candidates that sat for WASSCE, becoming the 10th state with poor student performance.
For students like Musa in Mararaba and Aisha in Misau, time is running out. Each year they spend in an understaffed school is another year that their dreams are deferred.
Parents lament
Parents are equally concerned. Salamatu Adamu, a mother of four students in Gamawa, lamented the poor quality of education her children receive.
“I sent my children to school but they often complain about not understanding when we try to assess them. How can they succeed if their teachers don’t know the subjects?” she asked.
According to Salamatu, the depletion of teachers deprives children of a proper learning experience, often leading to a decline in their moral values.
“Many times, students are left unattended when they should be engaged in class, leaving them unchecked.
“Education is not a priority for our leaders. They talk about reforms, but when it comes to reality, they fall short. The masses suffer, but it’s like no one cares,” she said.
For a decade, the Bauchi State government failed to implement effective recruitment strategies to address the growing gap in the education sector, the reality officials often refute.
Mohammed Abdullahi, the Spokesman for the Bauchi State SUBEB, said they are aware of the challenge.
According to Abdullahi, the state government has approved the recruitment of more teachers, but the plan was delayed by some bureaucratic processes he did not specify, “and it has not kicked off”, he said.
With the new chairmen of SUBEB and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in the state, Abdullahi hoped that the recruitment process would soon commence, stressing “I know they are working round the clock.”
According to the SUBEB spokesman, the last recruitment done was in late 2014, but the state absorbed some 1,000 UNICEF-trained female teachers into classrooms.
As of August 2023, the total number of teachers in Bauchi State public schools was 14,510 consisting of 9,104 male and 5,406 female teachers managing 14,499 classrooms across the state.
However, Abdullahi stressed that the number of teachers goes down every month, because a considerable number of teachers retire or die every month, and there is no replacement.
The teacher deficit in Bauchi State, caused by the government’s failure to recruit, highlights an education system where potentials and hope are impeded by neglect and systemic failures.
With this, committed teachers suffer, while the hope of children striving for a good education continues to fade out.