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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National leadership of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has picked holes in the recent sack of over two thousand basic education teachers by Kaduna State government over “incompetence”.
Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, few weeks ago approved the disengagement of 2,357 basic school teachers for purportedly failing competence test organized by the state government to test their capacity to impact knowledge and skills on children in basic education system.
National President of NUT, Comrade Audu Titus Amba, who was reportedly affected by the mass sacked told journalists at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Union in Abuja, on Wednesday, that the action of Kaduna state government was a charade designed the discredit the efforts and good works of teachers in the state.
He said: “We are teachers and best suited to know the concept of test administration. It’s is a settled and accepted tool for the assessment of the performance of a learner in his or her educational career. It’s used to ascertain strength and weakness, and also to determine a gap in knowledge.
“Regrettably, it has been maliciously bastardised and abused in Kaduna State. It has become an instrument of vendetta targeted at labour leaders who dared to advocate the advancement of the welfare of teachers in all ramifications, in order to silence them even in the face of unfair and unwholesome labour policies by the most labour unfriendly government in the history of Nigeria led by Mallam El-Rufai.”
He said that NUT had advocated that the Kaduna State Government should rather embark on continuous teacher training programme, which would, at the end of the day, improve knowledge and service delivery by teachers in the public schools of Kaduna State.
“This is what’s obtained in other professions such as nursing, medicine and law. The concept of competency test is an aberration and absurd in the State. Teachers in Kaduna State have prior to their recruitment in the state public service attended schools and institutions statutorily saddled with the responsibility of teacher education and these institutions certified them competent, fit and proper to be teachers.
“Besides, the teachers were subjected to scrutiny and test before they were recruited. It’s in the context of the above that the whole concept of a competency test which is only peculiar to Kaduna State was akin to a cocktail of absurdities and leaves a sour taste in the mouth, thereby validating the position of NUT that the intentions of the Kaduna State Government on this issue is everything but altruistic.
“Its inglorious aim was casualization of the teaching profession in Kaduna State, otherwise, how else can one rationalize the fact that Kaduna State Government in the year 2018 dismissed 21,780 teachers for not passing its unilaterally and arbitrarily administered competency test, and in replacement recruited about 20,000 new teachers, who were subjected to vigorous test and confirmed to be competent before they were recruited.
“The new teachers were employed on a temporary basis and placed on a one year probationary period. Their appointments were to be made permanent and pensionable after the one year probationary period but five years down the line, they are still under temporary appointment. The 20,000 constitute the bulk of the 2,357 teachers, who are said not to had passed the latest in the series of competency test in Kaduna State.”
On its National President, the Union said its leader has been a trade union leader for over 22 years, engaged in day to day labour related assignments both within and outside Nigeria, confirming that he did not write the competency test in the year 2018 and was not dismissed
“The question that readily agitates the mind in the circumstance is, what has changed in 2021/2022? It’s rather very sad and curious that the dismissal letter relative to the NUT President was in the public domain via the social media even when it has not been served on him clearly is to intimidate the NUT President and embarrass the teachers in Nigeria.”
The NUT NEC, however, reaffirmed its commitment to stand with its President and all the teachers in Kaduna State, who have fallen victim of the anti-labour policies.
