Glamourising teaching will be a major way to attract the youth to the profession, some education administrators have said.
The administrators said on Sunday that scholarship awards, automatic employment improved salary and stipends would attract more people into teaching.
They spoke during interviews against the backdrop of dearth of qualified teachers, especially in core subjects in many schools.
According to the 2022/2023 Universal Basic Education Commission National Personnel Audit Report, there is a shortage of 194,876 teachers in public primary schools in Nigeria.
The report shows that only 499,202 of the 694,078 teachers required at the primary school level were available.
The Provost, Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, Dr Wahab Afeez, said that decline in enrolment of students for the Nigeria Certificate in Examination and Professional Diploma in Education Programmes was getting worrisome.
Describing the situation as unhealthy and disturbing for the teaching profession, Mr Afeez said there was an urgent need for governments to step up efforts in tackling the trend.
According to him, the development is gradually exposing the country to unqualified and unprofessional teachers who may put the future of students at risk.
The provost also appealed to the Federal Government to consider improved welfare package for students in colleges of education to attract more Nigerians into the teaching profession.
He also called on the federal and state governments to consider scholarship awards to prospective students to boost enrolment into colleges of education.
Mr Azeez said that the committee of provosts was making efforts to address the dearth of qualified teachers.
“In the 2022/2023 academic session, we enrolled 382 NCE students and 30 PDE students. For this current 2023/2024 academic session, we have 353 students enrolled for the NCE and 43 for the PDE.
“When compared to what obtained in the previous academic years in the institution, you will discover that the number has dropped. On our part, in 2022, we mounted programmes such as Primary Education Studies as a new NCE course, while PDE programmes are in line with the previous Technical Teachers Certificate,” he said.
Mr Afeez said that all the courses were designed to enable the college to produce well-trained teachers.
The Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University of Education, Otto/ Ijanikin, Prof. Bidemi Lafiaji-Okuneye, urged the federal and state governments to consider re-introduction of payment of stipends to students in colleges of education aside from scholarship.
According to her, there is also the need to give students automatic employment after their training as teachers.
“Teachers reward is no longer in heaven, but on earth. Teachers need to be celebrated more and taken care of with enough benefits. Back in the days, governments used to give students those benefits, while they were undergoing training as teachers, which were definitely part of the attraction to the profession.
“Whatever made them stop that process, I definitely do not know, but the government needs to go back to the good old days. Governments can also give scholarships to our youth to study education, which can help to attract more youths to the programmes.
“Governments and private school owners must intensify efforts to increase salaries and welfare packages as well as other benefits for teachers,” she said.
The vice-chancellor said that about 8,500 graduates had so far been produced by the institution in the last five years.
According to her, the institution admits about 2,000