School teachers in Kaduna State and the governor, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i, are heading for a new showdown over a notice to conduct a fresh competency test.
The test, billed for December, is meant for primary school teachers.
On Wednesday, the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, (NUT), asked its members to shun the test. The Deputy National President of the union, Kelvin Nwankwo, gave the directive in Kaduna in a meeting with the teachers.
Recall that the State government, in January 2018, sacked 21,780 primary school teachers for failing a competency test conducted in 2017 and recruited 25,000 qualified ones.
However, reacting to the development, the State wing of the union, in a communique on Aug. 18 declared that none of its members in public primary school would sit for the test.
The Deputy National President yesterday stated that the union’s NEC was behind the decision of the Kaduna state wing.
Nwankwo insisted that the teachers’ competence had been proved by various accredited universities and colleges of education and were also tested before they were hired.
According to him, the NUT affirms and relies on the provisions of Section 1(d) Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) Act, CAP.T3 LFN 2004, which made provisions for the regulation and control of the teaching profession.
He advised State governments to embark on a mandatory continuous training programme in line with the practice in all professions, such as nursing, medicine and the legal profession.
He added that the teachers were available and willing to participate in refresher courses, workshops, seminars, or training to fill knowledge gaps in their various areas of specialisation. “However, we are opposed to any political ploy aimed at easing teachers out of service, with the pretext that such teachers had failed examinations”, he declared.
The State Chairman, Ibrahim Dalhatu, also stressed that only the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, (TRCN), was legally empowered to conduct any form of competency test for teachers, adding that teachers would not subject themselves to any test conducted by any other body.
