12 Nigerian States With The Highest Number Of Unqualified Teachers

Katsina State has emerged with the highest number of public primary school teachers lacking teaching qualifications, recording a staggering 7,405 unqualified educators as of 2022.

The revelation, drawn from official statistics by the Federal Ministry of Education and disseminated via data platform Statisense, has thrown Nigeria’s basic education sector into sharp focus, highlighting deep regional imbalances and systemic gaps in teacher quality.

Sokoto followed closely with 6,020, while Kano placed third with 5,564. The full top 12 states are as follows:

1. Katsina — 7,405
2. Sokoto — 6,020
3. Kano — 5,564
4. Niger — 5,388
5. Adamawa — 5,034
6. Borno — 4,594
7. Kaduna — 4,219
8. Taraba — 4,096
9. Jigawa — 3,900
10. Gombe — 3,768
11. Zamfara — 3,192
12. Yobe — 2,588

The national total stands at 88,367 teachers without the required qualifications across public primary schools. The North West zone claims six of the 12 states on the list — exactly 50 per cent — while the North East accounts for five states (41.7 per cent). Only one state from the North Central, Niger, made the ranking.

This concentration in the northern regions aligns with long-standing challenges in those areas, including insecurity that has disrupted teacher training and deployment, particularly in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. Rapid population growth, coupled with state-level recruitment practices that sometimes prioritise local hiring over professional credentials, has further widened the gap. Many unqualified teachers hold only secondary school certificates or come from unrelated fields due to unemployment pressures, a trend repeatedly flagged in education audits.

The implications are dire for Nigeria’s already struggling basic education system. Unqualified teachers have been directly linked to poor learning outcomes, contributing to the country’s learning crisis where millions of children, especially in the North, struggle with basic literacy and numeracy. High out-of-school children figures in states like Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara are no coincidence; experts say substandard teaching at the foundation level perpetuates cycles of educational disadvantage.

Broader UBEC data for 2022/23 reinforces the alarm, showing that nearly 33.3 per cent of basic education teachers nationwide — around 492,912 — lack proper qualifications, with the North West alone recording 95,833 unqualified staff in that period.

Yet, the Federal Government is taking decisive steps to reverse the trend. In July 2025, Education Minister Dr Maruf Olatunji Alausa inaugurated the 5th Governing Council of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) and issued a clear mandate: “You must completely eliminate the presence of unqualified teachers from our classrooms.” The directive aims at a nationwide purge, backed by stricter licensing, revocation of fake credentials, and capacity-building initiatives such as the ongoing EDU REVAMP Teacher Capacity Building Programme and Post-Graduate Diploma in Education upgrades.

Stakeholders, including the Universal Basic Education Commission and education rights groups, have welcomed the move but urged state governments — especially in the North West and North East — to fast-track local implementation. They called for massive investment in teacher training colleges, better remuneration to attract qualified professionals, and stricter adherence to the minimum NCE qualification standard.

As Nigeria pushes toward improved learning outcomes under the current administration, the 2022 figures serve as a stark reminder: without urgent sanitisation of the teaching workforce, the dream of quality basic education for every child will remain elusive, particularly for millions of pupils in the most affected northern states.