Newly recruited teachers unqualified, can’t write letter - Governor El-Rufai

- Governor Nasiru El-Rufai declared that his administration is determined to fix the education system in the state

- The governor noted that the state sacked 21,780 teachers that “failed” a competency test, it organised another one

- He, however, said some of the new ones were also discovered to be equally unqualified

Governor Nasiru El-Rufai’s El-Rufai of Kaduna state who was speaking at a round table discussion on governance that was organised in Abuja, said the newly recruited teachers unqualified and they can’t write a letter.

Daily Independent reports that El-Rufai said his administration was determined to fix the education system in the state saying if it will cost his re-election, it is a price he has prepared to pay.

According to him, ''After the state sacked 21,780 teachers that “failed” a competency test, it organised another one. Some of the new ones were also discovered to be equally unqualified.

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''After the sack, the government began a recruitment process of another 25,000 teachers but some of the new teachers we tried to recruit tried to game the system.

''We gave those that passed, letters of appointments and a plain sheet of paper to write a simple Letter of Acceptance and some could not. It was clear they didn’t write the tests themselves.

''All their teachers have now left to join our government. We believe that in five years’ time, private education in Kaduna will be a luxury, rather than a necessity.''

El-Rufai said his administration was determined to “fix the education system” in Kaduna, saying “if it will cost us re-election, it is a price we are prepared to pay.”

One of the teachers said: ''If some of the teachers who the government recruited are those who had earlier being sacked, one begins to wonder why the government had sacked them.

''Some of us who are qualified are put together with the unqualified ones, same salaries and remunerations. I think the governor should have retrained them instead, rather than sacking them. See what is happening now?

''We now have more unqualified teachers. My sincere advice to the government is for them to retrain and retrain.''

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A private school owner in Kaduna also said: ''We do not believe that the issue of private schools in Kaduna will become a luxury rather than neccesity.

''Agreed that the government pays well and the salaries are regular but they cannot employ all the teachers in the state.

''News has even gotten to us that some of the recruited teachers are the ones earlier sacked.

''We acknowledge the fact that the government wants to sanitize the education system in the state but anytime, the public schools cannot compete with the private schools in the state. Not just yet, maybe in the near future but not now.''

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the state government said it had increased the salary of public school teachers by 32.5 percent.

The state commissioner for education, science and technology, Ja’afaru Sani said at a news conference in Kaduna that 27.5 per cent salary increase would be added to all teachers while five per cent would be incentive for teachers posted to rural areas.

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Source: Legit.ng