The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) is raising hell over Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s announcement to sack 21,780 teachers who scored less than 75 per cent in the state’s competency tests. However, El-Rufai has rejected the union’s recommended 60 per cent reports ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE.
The deadline the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) gave Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to rescind his decision to sack 21,780 public primary school teachers out of 33,000 who allegedly failed a competency test organised by the government is Monday next week.
However, whether he will bow to the union’s pressure is yet to be seen.
Already, the government has received 23,000 applications from supposedly qualified teachers seeking to replace those that may be shown the door for lack of mastery of Primary Four content.
El-Rufai’s Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye has said some of those who allegedly failed the competency test were among the applicants.
“If you check the Governor’s twitter handle, as at Thursday, November 9, over 23,000 applications had been received for the advertised vacant positions of 25,000 primary school teachers in the state.
“The submission of application is closing on November 19, 2017. Thereafter, the applications will be screened and successful applicants will be invited for a written test. The written test will be conducted, and by 27th December, results of the written test will be released and interview will be conducted on the 8th of January, 2018.
“On the 26th of January, we are supposed to have been able to issue temporary appointment letters to successful applicants”, Adekeye told this reporter.
Controversy has trailed the release of the test result – with the NUT claiming the government did not use the right tools or agency to measure the teachers’ competence. The union also said the Governor did not keep to his promise to set 60 per cent as the pass mark.
El-Rufai on the other hand has said the agreed benchmark was 75 per cent and that the Union was part of the screening from the start.
Announcing the results last week when he received a joint delegation of the World Bank and DFID at the Government House, the Governor expressed disappointment that 66 per cent of the teachers did not meet the 75 per cent benchmark.
“We tested our 33,000 primary school teachers, we gave them primary four examinations and required they must get at least 75 per cent, but I am sad to announce that 66 per cent of them failed to get the requirements,” he said.
Details of the results showed that 11,591 teachers (33.9 per cent) scored 75 per cent and above; while 5,766 of them (16.9%) scored 70 and 74 per cent.
The result also showed that 8,759 (26.1%) scored 60-69% marks, while 8,047 (23.58%) scored 0-59%.
Why the test?
The teachers’ reform is part of El-Rufai’s plans to reverse the degeneration of the education sector in the state.
When he assumed office in 2015, El-Rufai started with a school feeding programme, which increased enrolment of primary school pupils from 1.2 million to over 1.8 million within a session.
The sudden increase in enrolment propelled the government to address the problem of infrastructural decay, and shortage of school furniture. He also provided books and uniforms to the pupils across the state.
The increased enrolment also made the government to shift focus to addressing teacher quality and quantity. A source in the El-Rufai administration said: “We initially thought the only problem with teachers was that, a few of them don’t have the requisite certificates to teach. We never envisaged this level of poor performance on the part of the teachers”.
How the test was conducted
Beyond assessment of teachers’ paper qualifications, the El-Rufai administration decided to test teachers with a view to ridding primary schools of incompetent teachers.
He set up a committee chaired by Balarabe Lawal, Secretary to the State Government (SSG) which included the NUT, the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), and others. The SUBEB was given the responsibility of setting questions and administering the test to teachers across the state. The Nation gathered that, it was done in conjunction with the Teachers Registration Council (TRCN), while NUT leaders supervised the examination in the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
When the results came out, the stakeholders met to set a benchmark.
It was at the point of agreeing on the cut-off mark that the government and the NUT fell out. The NUT voted for 60 per cent, while government officials insisted on 70 per cent pass mark.
Not the first test in Kaduna State
El-Rufai is not the first Kaduna State governor to beam a searchlight on teachers.
In 2009, as governor, former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mohammed Namadi Sambo sacked 4,000 teachers who allegedly forged their certificates.
Sambo’s successor, the late Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa before his death in 2012 administered Primary Four tests on 1,599 primary school teachers in the state, out of which 1,300 failed. Only one of them was said to have scored 75 per cent, 250 scored between 50 to 75 per cent, while 1,300 scored below 25 per cent.
Also in 2012, the then Chairman of the Kaduna State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Yunusa Mohammad revealed that of the 38,000 teachers in the state, about 17,000 were not qualified as they had only Senior School Leaving Certificate (SSCE), diplomas and other non-teaching qualifications.
Yakowa’s administration gave all unqualified teachers a five-year moratorium to acquire the requisite qualifications for teaching.
Politics of recruitment
El-Rufai blamed the politicization of the teachers’ recruitment process for the crisis in the state.
He said last week that politicians and local government chairmen made the primary school sector a “dumping ground for their thugs.”
“Teachers were employed at local government level without adherence to standards,” he said, adding that in many instances, no examinations or interviews were conducted to assess the quality of those being employed.
“Political patronage, nepotism and corruption became the yardstick, thus giving unqualified persons a way in. Teaching jobs were given as patronage to those connected to politicians and bureaucrats,” he said.
The Governor also disagreed with the NUT’s 60 per cent pass mark, which he said was too low.
Speaking on radio, he said: “Where is the sense of shame? I hear some people say the pass mark for a primary four exam should be 60 per cent; the same people say the state government has no right to test the competence of its employees.
“There is no bigger evidence of the crisis in our society than that a union whose members failed a Primary Four examination and thinks it can create problems over the issue rather than be a part of the solution.
“We are not people that bow to threats. We will respond appropriately. What will be the point of that strike? To force us to violate our oath of office and knowingly retain as teachers those that are not qualified? That will not happen.”
NUT’s reaction
The NUT is not sitting easy on the matter. It has warned of industrial disharmony if the government goes ahead with its plan to sack the teachers.
On Tuesday when reached for comments on the issue, the Kaduna State NUT chairman, Comrade Audu Amba, refused to speak. However at an earlier press conference held last Friday, he had said the competency test was not professionally conducted and warned that, relieving such huge number of teachers of their job would set the state “20 years behind”.
He said: “Though the NUT supports the government’s desire to improve the quality of education in the country, it does not support the modality employed by the state government in conducting the competency test.
“It is with pain that we are taking this decision, while appreciating the concerns of the state government to uplift the status of teachers. We have discussed with the state government to let it understand that teaching profession is not like other profession or industrial machines that you open and close at will.
“The proficiency test can only be recognised if it is conducted by TRCN. The state insisted otherwise. What we are receiving today is not what we agreed with government. They were not tested based on professionalism or on what they studied.
“It will do us a great harm if 21,780 teachers are relieved of their jobs. Government will be setting us back 20 years if 22,000 teachers are relieved of their jobs. I cannot imagine where there will be replacement. The test was not in conformity with what is expected on how teachers are tested.”
NUT’s agitation against the government was backed by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). Its National President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba led a protest against the planned sack on Wednesday last week in Kaduna. NUT leaders from 18 northern states as well as those of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) stood in solidarity with their colleagues in Kaduna.
The ongoing recruitment exercise
El-Rufai said the Kaduna State Executive Council had approved the recruitment of 25,000 primary school teachers, which he promised would follow due process.
“This time around, there would be standardised tests for those to be recruited.
“No unqualified person will scale through and we will vet certificates very closely and very often. The future of our children is so important that we will not take chances. We will be vigilant in ensuring that only good people teach in our public schools,” El-Rufai said.
