The termination of the employment of 21,780 teachers by Kaduna State government for allegedly failing competency test has generated mixed responses among the people. It has also sparked protests and strike action by the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and other labour unions in the state.
The questions for the test were developed from primary four syllabus which lots of pupils reportedly answered successfully.
NUT has dragged the state government to an Industrial Court which granted an interlocutory injunction in December last year, restraining the government from dismissing any teacher from work pending the determination of the case. The court order was supposedly served to the government before it gave each teacher involved a termination letter.
Teachers, however, described the action of the government as a deliberate attempt to sack employees at all cost.
A teacher who retired from service in 2015 Hajia Zainab Bukar Malam in an interview with Daily Trust accused Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i’s government of contributing to the rot in the state education system.
“The education department of the local government had drivers, carpenters, messengers and lots more but the governor said their services were no longer needed because they were just sitting idle. So he directed that they be posted to schools to teach. What does a carpenter or messenger know about teaching. Now he said we have unqualified teachers; who brought them in?
“In fact, those test scripts displayed by the governor on social media are those of messengers, drivers and carpenters among others who do not even have the qualification to teach,” she alleged.
Narrating what brought about the competency test, she said, “When el-Rufa’i came into power, he said that teachers that came before 2009/2010 have to be retrenched because then, there was embargo on employment. The union struggled against that, so, later he said examinations have to be conducted.
“The first exam was conducted by the National Open University (NOUN) and about 90% of the teachers passed but he was not satisfied with the result because he did not get the number of teachers he wanted to retrench.
“He said another examination has to be conducted. Initially, the NUT disagreed but I don’t know what happened along the line, it agreed and an examination was conducted. It took a long time for the results to be released. Eventually when it was released, it was only about 11,000 out of over 33,000 teachers that were said to have passed.”
The retired teacher said most of the ‘hardworking’ teachers failed the examination while some who cannot even communicate or teach well were said to have passed, adding that some of the teachers declared incompetent have studied more and earned their degrees from different universities.
She said, “I personally do not agree with the result because I know the calibre of teachers I worked with before I retired.”
Hajiya Zainab said the decision to dismiss the teachers may not be unconnected to the pension scheme, which states that staff pension be divided into three parts.
According to her, names of some dead persons and those who travelled when the exam was conducted allegedly appeared among those who were said to have passed the competency test.
She suggested that government should retrain the teachers instead.
She said most educationists in the state also smelled a rat over the decision of the government asking dismissed teachers to reapply.
“Is there any logic in that, if truly they are incompetent and unqualified, why are they reapplying?”
According to her, when some teachers requested to see their exam scripts, the government refused to give them and refused to give explanation.
She said most of the teachers have served for over 30 years and had either first of master’s degrees.
The entire situation, according to her, has demoralized the teachers left in the state civil service.
“Before I retired in 2016, I was promoted to GL13 since 2012 but up till when I retired, it was not implemented,” she said.
She however suggested that an independent body should conduct a fresh test for the ‘competent teachers’ without government influencing the process; insisting that not all those said to have passed are qualified and competent.
Hajiya Zainab also said people who took part in political campaigns and who had no teaching qualifications were employed by politicians as teachers as pay back.
Malam Ahmed, a teacher in Zaria is one of those who claimed his paper was not well marked and graded and that all efforts to get his script reviewed failed. “I took my letter requesting that my paper be remarked to Kaduna SUBEB and I was asked to go back to my local government area for my secretary to endorse it but he did not because he thought the governor will have a re-think on the issue.
“To me, my script was not well marked. I got my letter of compulsory retirement last week Friday and I take it as an act of God and I believe He is going to open another door for me to be able to sustain my family,” the father of five said.
Also, Hajiya Ramatu, a widow whose employment was terminated urged the state government to hasten the process of paying them their entitlements saying, she is finding it very difficult to feed herself and her children.
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