The decision by the Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state to sack 21,780 teachers who recently failed the competency test, is generating mixed reactions from Nigerians. TOPE SUNDAY and NNODIM EUPHERASIA report
El-Rufai should revisit his decision
Were there capacity trainings for them before now? There are teachers; they went to school, yes. But they should be trained and re-trained. You can only sack them if you have put them to test, you have given them adequate training and they have not improved. But, as a government, you have not done your own too. There is need for Mallam Nasir el-Rufai to revisit that decision. Yes, is not good for teachers not to be well knowledgeable on what to impart on the pupils, but again, it is not wise enough to just throw them into the labour market. Subject them to adequate training and after that, let see whether there will be improvement or not. Professor Abubakar Olarenwaju Sulaiman – Ex- Minister
We should avert possible suicide
Though, the teachers’ failure is reprehensible and unacceptable but rather than sacking them, he should retrain them. By sacking them is like solving a problem but creating another one. The unemployment rate is already high. We should ask the government too that when last did it train the workers? The problem was not created at a go therefore sacking them at a go is not the solution.
They can be relegated to be teaching primary one and two pupils only pending when they are retrained and fit to teach higher classes. The issue of sacking is not as simple as it seems. We must look at it with a holistic view. What will become of the dependants of these people? We should remember the numbers of Nigerians that have committed suicide of late. Dr Rasaq Adisa – Lecturer
Teachers’ failure awful but….
What the governor did in that aspect is a very good thing because this is a big slap to our educational sector, but it is also not good in the sense of the present economy situation and these teachers may not have any other job to fall back to.
Yes, it’s a big shame for the teachers not to be able to pass the same examination meant for their pupils. I like what the governor did but he should at the current economic situation of the country. Some people did not pass the examination but that doesn’t mean that they are not intelligent and like some of my friends in secondary school back then, they are so brilliant but examination frights, it makes them fail a lot. So, yes, the governor has done the right thing but he should still consider the present economy and if possible deploy them to as non teaching staff. Kafas Tumba – Technician
He’ll be ill-advised to sack them
The governor would be ill-advised to sack the teachers who failed the competency test. First, they failed because they are only products of a bad system but they are not bad themselves. Also, he would be increasing the rate of unemployed people in the state, if he sacks them. I suggest that he should subject them to an on- the- job training and then later reassesses them and then reconsiders those who yield to training. Those who do not yield to training should be transferred to other sector where they can be productive. However, periodical or regular assessment of public school teachers should be embarked upon by not only Kaduna State but all states to keep teachers committed to their job. Adegboyega Obafemi Sherif -Broadcaster
Those who employed them are incompetent
The first question to be asked is who employed those teachers? I am absolutely convinced that, at the point of filling in for the teaching job, some people must have deduced the deficiency in these teachers but failed to act on it. There is perceived corruption and failure on the part of the panel’ or better or worst still, the panel couldn’t spot the deficiency in these to be teachers, simply put as, members of the panel too are not qualified; Politics in play. As long as I will never support negligence of duty and rendering of substandard or non quality education, firing of these teachers at this point in time, I will say, is baseless and not warranted. These teachers can be given life lines to improve on their skills and if at the expiry of the ultimatum there fails to be reasonable improvement, then the stick can be adopted. The note and voice on which this exercise was executed sounded more of political, so it’s really a wrong call at a wrong time. Yeah! We’re all clamouring for a quality education delivery. The way to achieving that is not via this archaic style. I am sure there are bad eggs among these teachers but something keeps telling me not all of them are as bad as they were painted. I think they are not as bad as the state government presented them to be. We should use the recent occurrence on the campus of the University of Ilorin, during her 2017 convocation. It was gathered that; the best two graduating students and the worst two graduating students in the entire school were given scholarship to a reputable University in the United Kingdom. The worst two graduating students, some of you will question this decision till eternity, but, the fact still remains that in failure there is always a chance to succeed under the right and conducive atmosphere and environment. Odelowo Victor Adeyemi -Teacher
Unqualified teachers should be wielded out
Oh, it is hundred percent very good. We call them teachers that means, what they are impacting on children, they don’t know it. I am fully behind Governor el-Rufai. When I was in school all those teachers would want to kill you all in the name of discipline and I could remember they failed theirs as well but no one did anything. Now, it’s a good thing to fetch out the quacks in the teaching profession. Azubike Chike – Trader
