The Kaduna State Government has given the 21,000 teachers who did not pass the recent competence test another opportunity for consideration saying they can reapply for jobs in its ongoing recruitment exercise.
About 12,000 of the sacked teachers were said to have reapplied while the remaining are yet to do so.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai while answering questions during a meeting with the chairmen of the 23 local government councils and their education secretaries in Kaduna, explained that SUBEB has a programme of continuous recruitment, and as such will give every teacher that is willing a chance to apply and be considered for recruitment.
The meeting was informed that many teachers who did not apply anew, or were dissuaded by their union from taking the recruitment test are requesting a second chance.
“We are not interested in pushing any one away,” the governor said. We are pushing bad people away so that good ones can come in. That is why we are recruiting 25,000 to take the place of 21,780,” the governor stated.
He said teachers recruited in Kaduna State will get permanent and pensionable appointments.
The meeting received reports from all the 23 councils on the conditions in the schools in their areas.
The State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) also gave an update on the recruitment process for new teachers.SUBEB officials confirmed that the marking of scripts for new recruits has been concluded, and they assured the governor that the first batch of newly recruited teachers should be ready for deployment by the middle of February 2018.
The council officials according to a statement from the Government House, reported that most teachers in Kaduna State are reporting to work, and ignoring the NUT strike. The field reports indicated that NUT officials are persisting in their harassment of teachers that are reporting for duty. This illegal action is being aggravated by the seizure of school attendance registers by some of the union officials.
The governor said that the police and civil defence forces will provide protection for schools. He warned union officials to desist from impeding teachers that are reporting for work, or from seizing attendance registers.
“The right to strike does not include the right to prevent others from working. Union officials are reminded that school registers are public property, and seizing them amounts to an illegal act,” he said.
