At the beginning of the unfolding drama between Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i and teachers of Kaduna State, I’m absolutely in the side of the embattled Primary School teachers. I’m one of those who used all available platforms to preach against this mass sack of the civil servants.
The ample advice I gave initially to the governor at that time was, since Kaduna state is their employer, and El-Rufa’i is committed to overhaul the educational system of Kaduna state, which is quite commendable and timely, why not engage them in refresher courses to make them fit?
If Kaduna state government can afford to spend money to recruit fresh hands into the system, why can’t it spend on retraining the already employed teachers? But later, after revealing the answer scripts to the public by Kaduna state government and meaningless responses those teachers gave to that primary 4 examination, I made a U-turn and rushed to the side of the governor.
I agree with El-Rufa’i that those teachers don’t have even the minimum pre-requisites for teaching. Entrusting the educational future of those pupils to these teachers will end up in producing failure upon failure. But I still hold the view that those teachers shouldn’t be sacked. What government should do is to absorb them and post them to other sections where they can function effectively. Although, additional structures need to be put in place, the teacher is the alpha and omega of all learning processes.
The quality of education lies on the shoulders of a qualitative tutoring. And this major repair of our educational system should not be limited to only Kaduna state but rather, to the entire states of the federation. Because institutions saddled with the responsibility to closely watch and monitor the activities of teachers, failed to ensure that only those with required requirements and moral uprightness were allowed entry into the class rooms.
Other states need to take a clue from this rare move to assess whether their teachers are fit to the task or not. Sadly, this noble profession, courtesy of government’s neglect, is being viewed by many as all comers venture. Miscreants with no required qualifications were compensated by politicians with teaching jobs. That’s why it is necessary for other states to administer this kind of competency test to their respective teachers to weed out quacks.
Abbas Datti,
Kano
