The federal government has expressed its readiness to recruit about 441,000 primary school teachers before 2015 to enable it meet some expectations of the United Nations (UN) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG-2) on Universal Primary Education (UBE). 

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr Precious Gbeneol, disclosed this in Port Harcourt at an education roundtable with the theme: ‘Achieving MDG Goal 2- Universal Primary Education by 2015.

 Gbeneol, who was represented by Mrs. Funke Baruwa, said as at November 2013, the federal government was able to recruit only 105,000 teachers, adding that government needs about  300,000 classrooms to meet MDG requirements.

 She said while enrolment of children into primary schools increased from 88% in 2008 to 97% in 2010, no fewer than 66.1% of Nigerian youths between the ages of 15 and 24 are still illiterate.

 In his presentation titled; ‘Basic Education and Institutional Capacity in Achieving MDGs’, the Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi, said out of the 500 model primary schools built by the administration of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, 300 have been completed.

 Nemi, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr. Richard Ofuru, blamed the faculties of education in tertiary institutions across the country for the problem facing the teaching profession in the country, saying candidates often choose to read education as a last resort.