TEACHER QUALITY AND QUANTITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

The study was carried out to find out teacher quality and quantity and its implication for the implementation of the Universal Basic Education in Edo-State, Nigeria. The design of the study was descriptive survey and a sample of 110 principals was randomly selected using stratified proportionate sampling technique. Three research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. Mean, standard deviation and rank order statistics were used to analyze the research questions and z-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Findings revealed that teacher quality and quantity facilitates the implementation of the UBE programme in Nigeria, by ensuring a better delivery of instruction, use of varied teaching methodologies, pedagogical task of childbearing, better classroom management, reduction in teachers’ workload and adequate teacher-student ratio. Findings also revealed that the implication of the implementation of the UBE scheme in Nigeria includes: training and retraining of teachers, improved academic performance, reduction in student dropout and eradication of the widespread of examination malpractice. The study recommended that the federal government should focus on the supply of quantity and quality teachers for secondary school education who will be able to teach and equip our children with the opportunities they need to optimize their potentials and contribute to the growth and development of the society and humanity.