LAGOS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- About 6,000 additional teachers are required to improve the quality of education in northeast Nigeria's state of Borno, an official said Sunday.
"The government is building a state of the art schools with a decent environment, but our teachers lack motivation," Jibril Muhammed, chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) said in Maiduguri, the state capital.
"It is my firm belief that with the necessary motivations for our teachers, the problems in our education sector will be solved."
He spoke against the backdrop of 40 mega schools constructed by the government to cater for the education of 53,000 children orphaned by Boko Haram insurgency in the state.
Borno state in northeast Nigeria has been devastated by the insurgency.
Muhammed said at least 5,000 teachers are required for primary schools while additional 1,000 be deployed to secondary schools to boost teaching and learning.
He commended the government for prioritizing education in the state but said it should also accord priority to teachers welfare.
The teachers union chief said that teachers were among the worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, with about 530 killed and 32,000 displaced.
Teachers are some of the lowest paid public sector employees in the oil-rich West African country.
About 27,000 people have been killed in Borno and two neighboring states since 2009, in one of the world's most violent conflicts that have destroyed homes and infrastructure.
