What can the government do to save teacher who can’t read her own Affidavit?

Teachers are charged with the task of educating the students for whom they teach. Their responsibility does not only stop in making sure that they pass their test and examinations, but more importantly, making sure that they can read, write and comprehend the compositions of learning. What then happens when the teacher who is supposed to do all this, can’t read nor write herself?

Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole yesterday nabbed a teacher Mrs. Augusta Odemwigwe who could not read properly.

Mrs Odemwigwe was asked to read an affidavit she swore to declare her age but to the amusement of all, she stuttered continuously until the governor helped in reading it for her.  The teacher, when asked to repeat a sentence she didn’t read well replied in ‘pigin’ English saying “make I start am afresh”.  Oshiomhole, stunned by the low level of intellect displayed by Odemwigwe, who has spent 20 years in the profession, read the sworn affidavit and wondered if she could write same on the board.  Mrs Odemwigwe has spent over 20 years in the teaching profession and presently teaches in Asalogun Primary School in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo state.  The governor discovered this during an exercise to screen over a thousand teachers involved in fraud. The teachers are accused of falsifying documents to get into service.

Now for some of us, this might seem funny or even yet, very funny. But the exposition or revelation of this sort is not for us to laugh about, but to understand how damaged the educational system in Nigeria has become. Every now and then the leaders of this country sing and shout at the top of their voices that the Nigerian graduates are unemployable, how can they be when the teachers who educate them are barely half-baked? It is not enough for us to keep discovering and speaking about the ills that has crippled and still crippling our various systems; it’s not enough to keep saying that Nigerian graduates are unemployable, the question is, what are they going to do about it or what have they done about it since they started speaking of it? Nothing!

The government of this country is used to speaking more of the ills than they do of acting towards them. Our leaders keep dribbling affairs of this country so much so that it affects virtually everything that the ideals of this country were built upon. Can the government do something about the current situation of things as regards our education system? Yes they can! Will they do something about it, putting things in order and making it match world standards? This I do not think they will!

We really may not stop having a reoccurrence of this sort of situation if we don’t begin now to find a way out of it. There are more than one person to leave blames to in this regards, the government to start with, for not doing her bit to making sure that the Nigeria’s education system are standardized, the women who couldn’t read her own affidavit, for not finding out time in her 20 years of teaching, to develop herself in preparation for this embarrassing day. Be that as it may, the truth remains that our children are not learning enough in the hands of their teachers be it in primary, secondary or the university and the government who is in charge of affairs in the country, has a big role to play.

If you are the government, what can you do to repair the already broken system?