The Kaduna State government says it has concluded plans to recruit 10,000 primary school teachers to replace those disengaged to improve the teacher-pupil ratio.
The deputy governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, made this known in Kaduna, yesterday, at the inauguration of the distribution of learning materials to pupils in 4,260 public primary schools and 838 learning centres.
The state government had on June 19, announced the sack of 2,357 primary school teachers for failing the government’s competency tests.
The state government had in 2018 sacked 21,780, for failing a similar test while 233 others were sacked in December 2021 for allegedly presenting fake certificates.
The deputy governor said the government shall continue to weed unqualified teachers in public schools and no amount of distraction would stop it.
“The quality of instruction is very important in determining the educational outcomes of our children and we cannot allow only the children of a few to steal the advantage that education provides.
“Nor shall we continue to allow poor quality education to be available to the children of the weak and vulnerable in our society, who attend public schools.
“Children of the poor also deserve competent teachers, and it is our sworn responsibility to ensure that they get it,” he said.
Balarabe said the state government had renovated more than 500 public primary and secondary schools and provided perimeter fencing in many schools as required by the UN agencies for the security of children.
She said when poor children are exposed to books early, they would learn to read better, adding that the more children have access to books the more likely they would learn better.
The learning materials would be distributed under the BESDA programme.
