Teachers’ recruitment: Applicants would be thoroughly screened – El-Rufai

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said that all shortlisted applicants in the on-going teachers’ recruitment exercise in the state would be subjected to oral and practical examinations, to be followed by interview and final verification to ascertain the authenticity of their qualifications.

A statement issued and signed by the governor’s spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan quoted El-Rufai as saying this in Abuja while holding a consultative meeting with members of the National Assembly from the state.

The state government is currently shopping for 25,000 new teachers to replace the 21,780 teachers who were said to have failed the primary four examination conducted to test their competency. The governor mentioned at the meeting that the state government has received 43,806 applications from prospective teachers in the state.

According to him, those who scale through will undergo training on teaching before they would be deployed to the classrooms to teach.

“Ensuring quality and competent teachers in public schools is something crucial and doable, but requires courage, sincerity and honesty as guiding principles. We are all products of quality public schools and can compete anywhere in the world; we are beneficiaries of quality education from public schools and we have achieved a lot from the sacrifices made by the previous leaders.

“Having benefitted from quality public education, we must be committed to reviving our public schools. The unqualified teachers that are being replaced will get all their rights and entitlements. This reform is necessary and will not be derailed by propaganda, blackmail, and deliberate misrepresentation of facts. Reform is not restricted to recruiting and retaining competent teachers.

“We are also constructing and re-constructing schools, class rooms, updating the curriculum, providing facilities and teaching aids as well as teachers’ welfare. In fact, we removed the career barrier for teachers in 2015. Teachers in Kaduna State can now rise to Grade Level 17 (Permanent Secretary grade) without having to stop being teachers,” he said.

He called on members of the National Assembly from the state to help save the future generations from servitude by ensuring that quality public education is offered in the state.