A Nigerian court has suspended the intended plan by the Kaduna state to sack thousands of teachers who failed competency exams meant for their six-year old pupils.
The governor of the Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai in November released samples of the exam questions the basic school teachers failed this year.
21,780 teachers, that’s almost two-thirds of the total number of teachers who sat the exams could not score 75% or higher.
Nasir El-Rufai had signaled that 25,000 new teachers are to be recruited to replace those being sacked.
We are putting these out in the court of public opinion for Nigerians to make their verdict. Here are some of the primary 4 competency test scripts conducted for primary school teachers in Kaduna State. pic.twitter.com/aMwRWPlh6f
— Governor Kaduna (@GovKaduna) November 9, 2017
There were protests staged by the Nigerian Labour Congress, school pupils and the some teachers, claiming that ‘examination is not a true test of knowledge”.
The governor had said that “No amount of protests will deter the government from recruiting qualified teachers, while giving disengaged teachers the entitlements specified in their terms of service.”
But a court in the state of Kaduna has suspended the planned sacking of the teachers following the teachers’ union decision to challenge the planned dismissal of its members.
President Muhammadu Buhari has already backed the sacking of the teachers, saying it was a “serious situation” if teachers could not pass the exam they are supposed to teach children.
Nigeria is struggling to deal with the poor pupil-teacher ratios across various states.
Source: Africafeeds.com
