Mr Osita Okechukwu, former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on the government to implement UNESCO’s recommendation of allocating 15–20 per cent of public expenditure to education.
He made the appeal on Sunday at the Igwa Nshi Annual Festival in Eke, Enugu State, lamenting the declining quality of teachers in Nigeria, as reflected in recent poor results from the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) qualifying examination.
According to Okechukwu, the failure of 4,169 teachers in the 2025 Batch ‘A’ Professional Qualifying Examination is alarming and highlights the urgent need for intervention to restore teaching standards.
He warned that inadequate teacher quality directly impacts student performance and undermines national development.
“Education should receive at least 20 per cent of the national budget because Nigeria’s most valuable asset is its human capital,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of leveraging Nigeria’s youthful population, with 70 per cent under the age of 30, especially in an increasingly ageing global landscape.
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Okechukwu called for a shift in national priorities to focus on long-term investment in education, which, he argued, could enable Nigeria to become a leading global labour provider.
Meanwhile, Dr Jacinta Ezeahurukwe, Director of Certification and Licensing at TRCN, confirmed that 32.38 per cent of the candidates failed the recent qualifying exam, underscoring the need to strengthen teacher education and training across the country.
