An education advocate, Femi Aderibigbe, has raised concerns over the federal government’s UTME exemption for NCE candidates, saying it may not address teacher shortages.
Mr Aderibigbe, a former advocacy manager for the Malala Fund in Nigeria and board chair of ImpactHouse Centre for Development Communication, stated this in a statement made available to journalists on Thursday in Kaduna.
He said that while the teacher shortage in Nigeria was real, the policy focused more on easing access to teacher training institutions than on addressing the underlying issues affecting the profession.
According to him, poor welfare, delayed salaries, overcrowded classrooms and limited professional support remain major factors discouraging many people from taking up teaching careers.
“The teacher shortage that Nigeria’s Ministry of Education is attempting to solve is real, but the solution announced may not effectively address the root causes,” he said.
The federal government announced that candidates seeking admission into NCE programmes and National Diploma courses in non-technology agriculture would no longer be required to sit for the UTME, provided they possess a minimum of 4 O-level credit passes.
Education minister Tunji Alausa said the move was aimed at reducing administrative pressure on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, which processed more than 2.2 million candidates for the 2026 UTME.
However, Mr Aderibigbe observed that the exemption alone might not improve teacher availability in schools if states do not increase recruitment and investment in education.
He noted that some states had reportedly gone several years without hiring teachers despite public school shortages.
“The constraint is at the hiring and deployment end of the pipeline, not only at the training entry stage. Removing the UTME requirement does not automatically translate to more teachers in classrooms,” he said.
The education advocate also expressed concern about maintaining quality standards in teacher education, noting that the Central Admissions Processing System mainly verifies credentials rather than assessing teaching aptitude or academic preparedness.
He added that improving teacher welfare, professional development and institutional support would play a more significant role in attracting qualified candidates into the profession.
Aderibigbe called on the Federal Ministry of Education to clarify the competency assessment measures that would guide admissions into NCE programmes under the new arrangement.
He also urged the National Commission for Colleges of Education to establish a clear assessment framework for institutions admitting candidates without UTME scores.
According to him, stronger investments in teacher welfare and recruitment are necessary to improve learning outcomes in public schools nationwide.
“A child’s right to education includes access to qualified and well-supported teachers,” he said.