We Need Better Teachers

Schools in a state like Lagos have poorly trained and poorly remunerated teachers, who deal with the high cost of living in a mega-city, while schools in a state like Anambra have highly qualified and reasonably remunerated teachers in an environment where the cost of living is lower compared to Lagos. For instance, those Onitsha girls who won the global tech innovation challenge in America have a trained Pharmacist as one of their teachers. So bottom line, it all boils down to the quality of teachers.

Unfortunately, most of our politicians do not seem to get it. They do not understand that it is very important for every child to start at the same level. If we frankly want to do something about Education in Nigeria, then we need to place every child in a public school and pay their teachers the same thing we pay bankers. We also need to stop giving money to pastors who buy expensive private jets and build schools that a lot of our children cannot attend. We need to start putting that money in the hands of school administrators, teachers and organisers of after school programs. A lot of these things are actually no-brainers and those are some of the things that keep me awake at night.

I don't know about you, but I have a strong feeling that getting our public schools to function optimally is our best shot at solving our problems as a nation.

PS: Please forgive my typos; I'm an Engineer.