Juliana Nwanneka Onuoha^1,, Odo Stella O.²

The study addresses the problems of teachers’ education and its effect in the realization of the objectives of Universal Basic Education programme in South East Nigeria. To guide the study, two research questions were formulated and two null hypotheses was postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population consisted all teachers under the Universal Basic Education Board in government owned schools in the zone. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select four hundred (400) public primary school teachers from the zone which made up 50% of the entire population. A -27 item researcher – developed questionnaire entitled Problems of Teachers’ Education Questionnaire (PTEQ) was constructed, validated and trial tested and used to elicit data from the respondents. The reliability was determined using Cronbach Alpha statistic and it yielded 0.92. Data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed amongst other things that lack of adequate educational funding, non-availability/presence of obsolete teaching and learning facilities in the school system, absence of qualified and competent teachers in the school system, poor teachers’ motivation pose a threat to the realization of the UBE objectives in the south east, Nigeria. The researchers recommended that government should provided packages that motivate teachers, provide incentives, provide adequate and modern teaching and learning facilities, increase educational funding and most importantly recruit only trained, qualified and competent teachers into the school system.

teacher education, basic education, programme, objectives, realization, effects