By Adamu Yusuf
As the world marks World Teachers’ Day 2026, the Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM) has called for greater attention to the conditions under which teachers operate.
KADBEAM also stressed that the appreciation must be matched with adequate resources and support to enable them to deliver quality education.
The Co-Chair, Civil Society Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM) Rahila Baita Ishaku made the call in a statement issued to journalists to mark the occasion.
She said while teachers remain central to the education system and deserve recognition, there is a need to examine whether the conditions provided allow them to effectively perform their responsibilities.
Rahila Baita Ishaku said the issue was particularly important in Kaduna State, where significant policy commitments had been made in the education sector, but gaps remained between government commitments and what teachers and learners experience in schools.
According to KADBEAM, Kaduna State’s 2026 approved education budget stands at approximately ₦243.98 billion, representing 25 per cent of the state’s total budget.
It, however, noted that the Q1 2026 Budget Implementation Report recorded overall education expenditure performance of 7.4 per cent, while capital expenditure utilisation stood at 4.3 per cent, compared with the 25 per cent point that would represent an even quarterly trajectory.
The organisation stressed that while budgetary allocation represented a commitment, actual expenditure reflected implementation, adding that the ultimate test was whether such implementation translated into improved teaching and learning outcomes.
KADBEAM also raised concerns over teacher deployment and pupil-teacher ratios, noting that an earlier teacher-provision baseline recorded 38,097 teachers in public primary and junior secondary schools, of whom 34,487, representing 90.5 per cent, were classified as qualified or certified.
It cautioned, however, that the figures came from an earlier baseline and should not be interpreted as the current 2026 teacher headcount.
The organisation further said aggregate teacher numbers could conceal significant inequalities in deployment, particularly between urban and rural schools.
According to the evidence cited by KADBEAM, the sector overview puts the pupil-teacher ratio at approximately 1:59 at primary level and 1:88 at junior secondary level, compared with a policy reference of 1:45.
It added that its May 2026 analysis identified an even more severe challenge at the Early Childhood Care, Development and Education level, with an ECCDE pupil-teacher ratio of 1:499, alongside a primary/basic ratio of 1:74 in the source documents used for its advocacy brief.
KADBEAM said such figures should not remain mere statistics in official reports, as they raised practical questions about the amount of individual attention teachers could provide, their ability to identify struggling learners and their capacity to support children with different abilities and learning needs.
The organisation also stressed the importance of distinguishing between baseline figures, government targets and actual results in assessing education-sector performance.
It said Kaduna’s policy and planning documents recognised the need to improve teacher deployment and reduce extreme pupil-teacher ratios, while its May 2026 brief recommended a phased ECCDE Teacher Workforce Rebalancing Plan.
The plan includes the movement of qualified personnel from administrative functions into classroom-facing ECCDE roles, with the objective of progressively reducing the 1:499 ratio towards the Sector Investment Plan target.
KADBEAM, however, emphasised that the available evidence did not establish that the proposed rebalancing target had already been achieved.
It therefore called for greater clarity in public reporting, stressing that targets should be presented as targets, ongoing interventions as implementation, and independently verifiable results as outcomes.
The organisation further argued that teachers could not deliver quality education alone, noting that the effectiveness of teachers also depended on the wider school environment.
It said the Q1 2026 evidence reviewed by KADBEAM showed that two important interventions—fencing of 61 schools and the provision of school furniture—had yet to record expenditure during the quarter.
According to the organisation, teachers working in insecure schools, overcrowded classrooms or learning environments without adequate furniture could not be expected to personally compensate for weaknesses requiring system-level solutions.
KADBEAM also highlighted the need for greater attention to inclusive education, particularly for girls, children with disabilities, rural learners and children in non-formal settings.
It said teachers required not only subject knowledge but also appropriate training, teaching materials, manageable classrooms, accessible infrastructure and adequate support systems to respond effectively to the diverse needs of learners.
The organisation, however, acknowledged areas of encouraging progress, citing recent results from sampled PLANE-supported schools.
According to KADBEAM, among Primary Four learners in the sampled schools, 91.2 per cent achieved foundational numeracy while 78.1 per cent achieved foundational literacy.
It added that learners in PLANE-supported schools reportedly read an average of 13.5 words per minute, compared with 3.8 words per minute among learners in control schools.
KADBEAM cautioned that the findings should not automatically be generalised to all schools in Kaduna State, but said they demonstrated that structured teacher support, monitoring and learning interventions could contribute to improved outcomes.
The organisation said the challenge was now to expand successful interventions and ensure that improvements were experienced across the wider education system.
As part of the World Teachers’ Day commemoration, KADBEAM urged stakeholders to assess whether teachers were being deployed to areas where they were most needed, whether recruitment was addressing verified staffing gaps and whether rural and hard-to-reach schools were receiving equitable support.
It also called for sustained attention to teacher preparation for inclusive classrooms, timely release of approved resources to schools and the extent to which education investments were translating into improved learning outcomes.
KADBEAM said its strategic direction includes annual tracking of teacher-pupil ratios and collaboration with education stakeholders to strengthen quality and inclusive education.
The organisation therefore urged stakeholders to use World Teachers’ Day not only as an opportunity to celebrate teachers, but also to examine the systems and conditions surrounding them.
It said providing teachers with appropriate training, resources, safe learning environments and adequate support would ultimately benefit not only the teachers but also every child in the classroom.
Editing by Khadija Kubau
