The Niger State government has said that it has discovered 5665 unqualified teachers presently working in the state Primary and Secondary schools.
The figure was revealed after the Niger chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers launched a screening exercise as directed by the governor of the state Abubakar Sani Bello to know the actually qualified teachers in the state’s basic education.
Prior to that development, the teachers embarked on weeks-long industrial action over salary increments which the government eventually agreed to increase on the condition to be presented with qualified teachers on the payroll.
Comrade Labaran Garba the Secretary of the NUT in the state who chaired the screening committee told RFI Hausa that the committee has identified 5665 unqualified teachers after the exercise. “We have taken the time to screen the 24,061 teachers in primary and found out that 19358 were qualified, while 4703 are not qualified.
Read:Amid Dearth of Teachers, Bauchi Recruits Just 310
Comrade Garba added that 962 teachers in secondary schools in the state have no certificates. He however called on the state government to grant the affected teachers another grace by enrolling them on training courses.
Despite the government attributing the mass failure of the teachers to a lack of certificates, Saudat Usman, one of the teachers in the state lamented that the deficiency in computer literacy among most of the teachers was one of the factors that hindered the smooth success of the exercise.
“Not all teachers are computer literate and everything was done online this thing disqualified many of them.
She called on the state government to include computer education in schools for both students and teachers.
After the report, the state government set up a committee that will further work on the findings and the subsequent recommendations to address the lingering issues in the education sector in the state.
