Kaduna state which prides itself as the Centre of Learning, is faced with the challenge of barely literate teachers who are saddled with the responsibility of teaching public primary school pupils.
Recently, the 33,000 teachers in the state sat for a primary four examination and 21,780 of them failed the competency test.
In this report, ELEOJO IDACHABA recalled that the previous government faced the same challenge but didn’t sanction those that failed the examination as Governor Nasir El Rufai is now threatening to sack the failures.
El Rufai’s promise
As a gubernatorial candidate, Malam Nasir ElRufai had promised to focus on education, healthcare and jobs creation.
In particular, he was sad about the state of education in the state under the administration of Governor Muktar Ramalan Yero.
Among other things, he had promised to embark on a free and compulsory education for every child in the state irrespective of ethnic and religious backgrounds up to the junior secondary school level.
In addition to all these, he also promised that all senior secondary school students would be put in boarding house and parents will be expected to pay only a token.
It is also on record that the government also promised to improve the infrastructural defi cits in the sector so that the era of pupils receiving lessons under trees or classrooms with open roofs will become a thing of the past.
Added to this, the gubernatorial candidate had promised to improve the welfare and capacity of teachers.
In this regard, he said they will be trained at the National Teachers’ Institute(NTI), the College of Education(COE) Zaria and other teacher training institutions across the country.
Afterwards, they would be subjected to series of tests to determine their profi ciency.
He, however, cautioned that those who fail the test will be shown the way out.
In addition, he had promised that his own child and that of the Commissioner for Education will attend public schools.
School Feeding Programme
When he assumed offi ce, El Rufai had embarked on School Feeding Programme, where primary school pupils were fed once a day.
Significantly, this instantly raised the enrolment figure from 2.
1 to a staggering 2.
2 million pupils within the fi rst six months of implementation.
Critics, however, say that this was a misplacement of priority, just like putting the cart before the horse.
Instead of expending resources on the programme, the government should have embarked on infrastructural development.
In particular, Comrade Audu Amba, the state Chairman of National Union of Teachers(NUT) said there was a lot of congestion in the classrooms with inadequate infrastructure to cater for the mass influx of the new intakes.
Similarly, Dr Mataimaki Tom Maiyashi, one time Commissioner of Education and a World Bank consultant on Education, picked holes on the school feeding scheme.
According to him, the teacher is the most important element in the education value chain but the government was neglecting him.
He accused the El Rufai administration of spending millions on school feeding whereas teachers.
‘School feeding, misplaced priority’
Introduction of school feeding by the Kaduna state were not being paid their salaries.
Sadly, the government suspended the feeding programme recently after spending over N10 billion in eight months, citing paucity of funds.
According to El-Rufai, the programme was momentarily stopped because the federal government failed to provide the counterpart funding meant to sustain it.
Illiterate teachers
On October 10, Governor El Rufai made a shocking revelation, when he received some World Bank offi cials at Government House Kaduna.
In spite of the investment in education, the governor lamented, 21,780 out of the 33,000 teachers in Kaduna state failed to pass primary four examination, which was administered to them in order to test their competence.
‘’We tested our 33,000 primary school teachers, we gave them primary four examination and required that they must get at least 75% but I am sad to announce that 66% of them failed to get the requirement,’’ the governor told the delegation.
Those that failed, he pointed out, will be shown the way out of service.
To this end, the state is shopping for 25,000 new teachers in order to restore the quality of education.
Hiring of teachers was politicized in the past but the present administration, El Rufai promised, will change that negative practice ‘’by bringing in young and qualifi ed primary school teachers to restore dignity of education.
’’
Outrage
The governor’s revelation was greeted with outrage as many stakeholders wondered how people who are saddled with the responsibility of educating others are themselves in want of education.
Several commentators had condemned the recruitment process in the past, whereby political thugs, wives of political appointees and just about anyone was sent to teach in public primary schools.
In addition, the school authorities practiced what they referred to as ‘’replacement’’, where a teacher who left service or transferred his service elsewhere is ‘’replaced’’ by someone who is not qualifi ed to teach.
Malam Mohammed Sani, a retired primary school teacher in Kaduna, said that the rot in the recruitment and promotion in public schools are too overwhelming that the El Rufai administration cannot solve the problems within his tenure.
NLC, critics react
On the other hand, the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) has accused El Rufai of playing politics with the competency test.
In particular, Comrade Adamu Ango, the state chairman, who is also the Secretary of Kaduna state branch of NUT said Governor El-Rufai wants to score a cheap political point through the said tests.
According to him, “this is the third tests conducted on teachers.
Where are the rest of the results, what are the criteria, who are the bodies that are supposed to conduct these exams, what are the agreed internationally accepted pass marks?’’, he queried.
Ango pointed out that the Teachers’ Registration Council is the right body to conduct such examinations and that some of the questions asked were beyond the competence of primary school pupils.
Speaking to our correspondent, Malam Alhassan Ishaq Qauranmata, a Public Aff air Commentator, said that the teachers were asked the full names of the United States’ president, the governor of Kaduna state and the Commissioner of Education as well as the Chairman of Kaduna State Universal Basic Education(SUBEB) as some of the questions in the examination.
Meanwhile, report indicate that those teachers who scored between 60 and 74% will be given a second chance to re-sit the competency examination.
In the meantime, the Zaria branch of the NUT has announced that it will embark on fasting and prayers to save their jobs from threat.
Mallam Yahaya Abbas, the Chairman of the branch union said the teachers were compelled to embark on the said spiritual exercise because that is the only place they can seek solace.
According to him, what the government agreed with the union was a pass mark of 60 percent but because the government wants to frustrate the teachers, it has decided to increase the pass mark to 75 per cent which was not in the earlier agreement.
Therefore, they intend to begin fasting from October 17 in order to seek divine help.
Same old problem
Similarly, the Yero administration had conducted this kind of competency test on primary school teachers in 2011 and several failures were recorded.
Unlike this administration, the previous one allowed sleeping dogs to lie as no erring teacher lost his or her job.
Ironically, after spending several billions of naira in the school feeding programme as well as various infrastructural upgrade, including the provision of instructional materials in primary schools across Kaduna state, the problem barely literate or outrightly illiterate teachers is still prevalent in Kaduna state, which ironically calls itself the Centre of Learning.
