By Abdulahmeed Abdulrozaq Bilal | Fact Frontier.
Click here to read more about the reporter.
If you walk into many secondary schools –both private and public– in Apomu, Ikoyi, and Ikire these days, you’ll notice something worrying. There’s a growing shortage of full-time teachers. To cope, schools are depending more and more on part-time staff. While having some part-time teachers isn’t new, this shift is becoming a full-blown crisis.
Here’s why it matters: In Nigeria, every parent knows how important Mathematics and English Language are. They’re the foundation of everything else. These subjects need steady, dedicated teachers who are there every day, not just floating in and out. But as of early 2026, only few schools still have full-time teachers for these core subjects. The result? Learning is suffering. In fact, academic performance in these areas is said to be dropping by about 2.1%.
So, who’s to blame? Is it the teachers, or the school owners –private? We heard from both sides.
A teacher, who asked not to be named, didn’t hold back. She feels many school owners are out of touch with today’s harsh economy.
They seem not to care about how their staff are surviving,she said. To make her point, she gave a simple example:
Things we bought for ₦30,000 in 2021 now cost ₦90,000 or more. The price has tripled! But some school owners act like they don’t see what’s happening.For her, the issue is clear: pay hasn’t kept up with the cost of living, so good teachers can’t afford to stay in one full-time job.
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But when we spoke to a school proprietor in Apomu, Mr. Akinyemi Abdulakeem, we got a different story. He pushed back on the idea that owners don’t care.
No school owner wants their staff to struggle,he said.
We’re all human. We know that without happy teachers, the school itself will fail.For him, the struggle runs both ways. He explained the difficulty of getting parents to pay fees on time, and how that money gets split many ways.
It’s not just salaries. There are government levies, building repairs, and other costs. We are paying more than we did five years ago, even if the increase isn’t as big as some would like. We’re all trying to build these children’s futures.
Both sides feel the pinch of the same tough economy. Teachers are scrambling to make ends meet, and school owners are juggling countless expenses with money that doesn’t stretch as far.
In public schools, there are numerous causatives for this academic crisis. One of them is inability of the government education board, both in local and state levels to employ qualified individuals for the academic activities while fears of underpayment is another issue. Rectifying these issues and others can pave way for excellence in learning and teaching.
At the end of the day, though, the real issue isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s about what happens in the classroom. When a child has a different math teacher every few months, or their English teacher is always rushing off to another school, that child loses out. The connection, the consistency, and the deep understanding that comes from a committed teacher—all of that fades.
Fixing this won’t be easy. It might mean schools need to get creative—maybe working together to make full-time roles more attractive, or parents and schools having more open talks about fees. But one thing is certain: if we keep patching the problem with part-time solutions, we risk building our children’s future on shaky ground. Our kids, and their chance to excel, deserve more than just a part-time effort from all of us.
