Just so you know, this is not because the system is broken but because we never thought it was worth fixing. I have a B.Sc,Ed and a MEd from the Nigerian education system. I watched brilliant, committed people study curriculum theory, developmental psychology, pedagogy, and assessment for years, just to enter a profession that the same government treats like a fallback option for people who could not get in anywhere else. And now JAMB has formalized that disrespect. Ask yourself one question: would we ever do this for Medicine and Surgery? Would we say, “you know what, anyone who wants to be a doctor does not need to pass UTME?” Of course not. Because people would die, and we would see it. Dead body go surplus ba? Yeah. But here is the truth nobody wants to say out loud. The damage a poorly trained teacher does is just as lethal. It is only slower. It shows up twenty years later in citizens who cannot think critically, who are vulnerable to propaganda, who will collect N5,000 and vote against their own future, who will join a secret cult because nobody ever taught them their own dignity. You cannot separate the collapse of Nigerian civic life from the collapse of Nigerian teacher education. They are the same story. Finland did not become Finland by accident. Denmark did not become Denmark by accident. The countries we admire for their infrastructure, their rule of law, their social trust, their cleanliness, their decency, built those things first in classrooms, with teachers who were selected from the top of their graduating cohorts and paid and respected accordingly. Teaching in Finland is as competitive as Medicine. That is not a coincidence. Our leaders cannot see this because they are not building for a future they will not live to enjoy. They want to name senate buildings after themselves today like Mimiko did in Ondo State. They want to build stadiums and name it after themselves like Godswill Akpabio. Nobody gets a plaque for producing a generation of thoughtful citizens. Nobody cuts a ribbon for that. And so it does not get done. Also, prioritizing petroleum engineers and tech gurus give them the ammunition they need to continuously take advantage of our natural resources and fintech opportunities to make millions. But for teachers who raise viable citizens? Nah! No instant reward. This JAMB policy is not a mistake. It is a value statement. It tells you exactly what this system thinks of teachers, of education, of the human beings those teachers will spend their lives shaping. And until we are as outraged about that as we are about fuel prices or naira depreciation, we will keep producing the same country, and then wondering why nothing ever changes. Everyone at @JAMBHQ should be ashamed of themselves.
