The Deputy Director of schools in the Kaduna state Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology; Idris Aliyu on Tuesday, said that the
state government is not planning to sack any teacher but redeploy the
unqualified and untrainable ones to where they can perform better, DailyTrust reports.
The state government had recently conducted a primary four
examination to test the competency of its primary school teachers where
21,780 out of 33,000 teachers were said to have failed.
Following the poor performance of the teachers, the state
government has began the process of recruiting new and qualified
teachers. The Executive Chairman of State Universal Education Board,
Nasir Umar on Sunday released the names of the 11,220 teachers who
passed the tests and are qualified to teach in public primary schools in
the state.
Umar also said three months notice would be given to those who
failed the competency test for disengagement; noting that teachers who
are above five years or practice would be retired while those below five
years would be disengaged. But the deputy director of schools, Aliyu
mentioned yesterday at the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria
(TRCN) maiden zonal meeting with critical stakeholders in Kaduna that
there was no such plan to sack teachers; urging the people not to
politicize the issue.
According to him, teachers who are trainable would be trained and
retrained while those who are not trainable would be redeployed to areas
where they perform more efficiently.
“There is room for training and re-training in the case for
those who are qualified and have their TRCN certificate but failed the
competency test. Those who are trainable would be trained while those
who are completely not trainable would be redeployed so as to give room
for qualitative teaching and learning in the state’s primary and post
primary schools.
“Let us not politicize this issue of teachers. This is the
first time a government is making a political will to upgrade and
standardize the teaching profession in public schools. All we are trying
to do is to quantify and upgrade the teachers.
“Teachers who are not real teachers but within the teaching
profession would be removed and not sacked but placed appropriately
where they can suitably work and where we have vacuum, we will employ
qualified teachers to teach. That is why the government has embarked on
recruitment of 25,000 teachers who must be qualified with their TRCN
certificate.
‘So there is nothing like sacking, we would only re-deploy them
to where they belong. There are some teachers who have been working for
over 35years, some are also over 60years of age and still practicing,
we are going to place them appropriately. The governor did not talk
about sack of teachers, we are only redeploying them to where they are
fit to work,” he reiterated.
He therefore urged the teachers to go back to their classrooms and continue working.