Court stops sack of 21,780 Kaduna teachers

The Kaduna Division of the National Industrial Court yesterday stopped the planned sack of 21,780 primary school teachers who failed a competency test organised by the state government.

Daily Trust recalls that the lawyer representing the teachers, Samuel Atum, had on October 30 filed a motion of interlocutory injunction, asking the court to restrain the government from dismissing or disengaging any teacher on the basis of the test conducted in June 2017.

After the hearing yesterday which was attended by hundreds of teachers and labour leaders, the lawyer, Mr. Atum, praised the court for ‘graciously’ giving the order.

Lawyers representing the State Attorney General and the State Government, as well as Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) declined comments when approached by journalist.

Some teachers who spoke to our correspondent said the ruling was encouraging. “It has given us hope,” Zainab Sanusi, a teacher, said.

The planned sack of teachers had sparked controversy, condemnation and protests.

Some of the scripts released by the government showed that many of the teachers supplied ridiculous answers to basic questions while about two-thirds of the teachers failed to score up to 75 per cent.

The Kaduna government has since vowed to sack the affected workers and to recruit 25,000 qualified teachers in their stead, despite threats by the local chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers to embark on strike.