Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state says there is no going back on the sacking of 22,000 teachers that failed a competency test in the state.
According to the governor, any person who has the interest of the state at heart should be embarrassed about the development.
He was speaking in a live radio interview as monitored by Vanguard, adding that the teachers who failed will be replaced with 25,000 others.
The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) had said it would embark on strike to stop the state government from sacking the teachers.
However, the governor said, “there is no bigger evidence of the crisis in our society than that a union whose members failed a Primary 4 examination thinks it can create problems over the issue rather than be a part of the solution.
“Everybody knows that we will not be deterred in doing what is right for the future of our children. The NUT thinks this is about politics, making a public show of opposing what they know to be right.
”Shouldn’t everybody be embarrassed by the test results? Where is the sense of shame? I hear some people say the pass mark for a Primary Four exam should be 60%; the same people say the state government has no right to test the competence of its employees.”
In addition, he noted that “There is no bigger evidence of the crisis in our society than that a union whose members failed a Primary 4 examination thinks it can create problems over the issue rather than be a part of the solution.
“We are not people that bow to threats. We will respond appropriately. What will be point of that strike? To force us to violate our oath of office and knowingly retain as teachers those that are not qualified? That will not happen.”
