The government of Kaduna State has announced plans to employ and recruit 10,000 primary school teachers to replace those previously sacked.
This was disclosed yesterday by the deputy governor of the state, Dr Hadiza Balarabe in Kaduna, the state capital at the inauguration of the distribution of learning materials to pupils in 4,260 public primary schools and 838 learning centres.
Recall that on 19th June, the state government announced the sack of 2,357 primary schools teachers for failing the government’s competency tests.
In 2018, the government in a similar fashion also sacked 21,780 teachers for failing same competency tests and new teachers were recruited in 2019. On 2nd December 2021, the government also sacked 233 teachers for allegedly presenting fake certificates.
The deputy governor said that the government will continue to weed out unqualified teachers in public schools and no amount of distraction will stop it.
He said “The quality of instruction is very important in determining the educational outcomes of our children and we cannot allow only the children of a few to steal the advantage that education provides.
“Nor shall we continue to allow poor quality education to be available to the children of the weak and vulnerable in our society, who attends public schools.
“Children of the poor also deserve competent teachers, and it is our sworn responsibility to ensure that they get it.
“The Kaduna state government had renovated more than 500 public primary and secondary schools and provided perimeter fencing in many schools as required by United Nations (UN) agencies for the security of children.
“New schools were built including new science secondary schools and many blocks of classrooms constructed in primary and other secondary schools across the state.
“The Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) and the state primary education development projects had ensured the construction of more classrooms at the primary school level, to accommodate the return of out-of-school children to classes.”
Balarabe said that however, as important as classrooms and physical structures are in creating conducive learning environments, lack of access to books poses an even greater challenge to learning.
She added, therefore, our free book policy is to increase access to textbooks, exercise books, sandals, sharpeners, pencils, erasers, school bags and magnetic boards.
“When poor children were exposed to books early, they would learn to read better, adding that the more children had access to books the more likely they would learn better.
“The problems in education were simply overwhelming, the government alone could not bear the burden. Learning materials would be distributed under the BESDA programme to ensure quality teaching and learning,” she said.