Sacked teachers: Kaduna govt reveals when new staff will resume

Kaduna government has announced when new teachers employed to replace the sacked 21,870 teachers will resume.

Those affected were dismissed after primary competency test administered on them by the state government last year.

The state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) is currently on indefinite strike over the matter.

On Monday, the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) disclosed after a meeting with the state Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, that the first batch of the 25,000 new teachers will be issued appointment letters in February.

A statement issued after the meeting by spokesman of the governor, Samuel Aruwan, said the education secretaries presented reports on the conditions of schools in their localities.

The secretaries said most teachers in Kaduna were reporting to work, but were being intimidated by officials of the NUT.

According to the statement, “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 reported that most teachers in the 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”

Aruwan said the governor promised to provide security to protect the schools. The governor, according to the statement, warned union officials to desist from impeding teachers that are reporting for work and 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” the statement added.