After the government of Kaduna state conducted competency test on teachers in the state and over 21 thousand out of the total population failed, the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, announced, at a meeting with World Bank representatives, his intention of disengaging 21,780 teachers, about two-thirds of the total teachers’ population.
“The hiring of teachers in the past was politicised and we intend to change that by bringing in young and qualified primary school teachers to restore the dignity of education in the state,” the governor said concerning the teachers who reportedly failed to score 75 per cent in a primary four examination the state set for them to test their academic abilities.
The Kaduna State government has repeatedly said the 25,000 new teachers to be recruited will be professionally screened and tested to assure only competent hands are employed. The government has also said the teachers to be sacked who feel they are still qualified can reapply to be among those to be recruited.
Weeks have passed after the announcement, yet the issue is still generating mixed reaction in the Nigerian cyberspace.
Here are some of the comments:
Nura Alkali
You side with Kaduna State teachers for losing their jobs. When you are reminded of the dangers of unqualified teachers educating children, you agree but suggest that the teachers should be retrained, not sacked for incompetence.
You are then shown the exam script of a teacher who confessed with his own hand that he lacks NCE, the minimum teaching requirement nationwide. You still insist he should be retrained. You are asked, how do you retrain someone who didn’t train?
Seeing you have lost here, you digress to wondering what else KDSG did to improve school standards besides sacking teachers. You are told about the school-feeding program which gulped billions and only stopped for lack of funds.
You are told that KDSG renovated 10% of its 4,200 schools and ran out of funds. That compelled them to seek a $350 million loan from the World Bank to complete the job, which Senator Sani opposes out of malice and political opportunism.
How do you react? You claim that the school-feeding program was a “scam”. You then challenge me to show you a link to the story of the World Bank loan. I won’t show you. I will just congratulate you for being the wisest Nigerian since 1914.
Mallam AbdulRahman San
I swear by Allah the blokes opposing el rufai on this issue would not have their children in schools with these kinds of supposed teachers Shehu Sani including…..
Gimba Kakanda
We are missing the irony of people whose kids are luxuriating in private schools, some of them exclusively elite, attacking Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s audacity to redeem public primary schools in Kaduna State.
There are occasions we should cite economic conditions in protesting an unpopular policy aimed at redeeming a long-endured horror, but that sentiment doesn’t apply to the education of our children, the generation we wish to be better than us, to be better educated at least.
El-Rufai may be notoriously divisive, many times arrogant for a leader in a democratic space, but this weeding of semi-literate teachers is long overdue, and it’s one of the rare moments I agree with his style. A compromise in the education of our children should never ever be a subject of advocacy, never be tolerated.
Primary schools should’ve been the most important aspect of any efforts to develop and sustain useful human capitals, and so it should be both of high quality and, importantly, compulsory. Some of our parents only stopped after what’s today called First School Leaving Certificate, yet they are sufficiently literate, even more than some of the tragedies we call university graduates today.
On the face of a placard during a protest to challenge el-Rufai’s decision is a foolish wisdom – “examination is not a true test of knowledge” or something like that. Only that what Kaduna state conducted was not exactly a test of knowledge, it was a basic test of literacy.
Idris Musa
Those who could not pass the test are Cheaters not Teachers. They must be weeded out before it become permanently impossible to revive that sector. If the foundation be faulty what can the righteous do?
Natty Isalla
Great feats most times are achieved after stout defiance against intense opposition like this. I pray Mallam Nasir El- Rufai musters and sustains the hardihood to call the bluff. Our children’s dear education must never be compromised for any primordial sentiment. Never!
Ahmed Haruna Tswata
I’m of the view that the teachers should be disengaged, putting into consideration that they have families to take care of …they should be transfer to other agencies.
Danjuma Abdullahi
The education sector needs complete overhaul and to think sacking kaduna teachers will remedy the sector, is shallow. The Gov. need to do engage more on the issue and find lasting solution.
Suleiman Ibrahim Ebbo
Redeeming public primary schools should go beyond just sacking teachers to overhauling the system of teacher’s education and educational administration… A lot of things are wrong at those levels that requires thorough audit of the overall teaching – learning objectives of our Colleges of Education as well as the administration of education in terms of recruitment, motivation, inspection and performance appraisal of teachers.. In any system everyone must play his/her role else there will be ripple effect… What goes around come around… I support total overhaul of the educational system that may include outright sack of the teachers if the need be but the process must seen to be systemic – a true reform devoid of grandstanding and scapegoatism… This abrupt policy action approach isn’t realistic.
