NIGER: Some teachers cannot read and write- NSUBEB

NIGER: Some teachers cannot read and write- NSUBEB

... Those teachers to become cleaners, nannies

By Bartholomew Madukwe

Central Chairman of the 2020 Staff Audit Committee, constituted by the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board, NSUBEB, Alhaji Ayuba Katako, on Monday, disclosed that some teachers cannot read and write.

During the presentation of the 2020 Staff Audit report to the board’s management of NSUBEB in Minna, the Chairman noted that at least 2,286 primary school teachers have questionable certificates.

Katako explained that the board’s management had in June set up a six-man committee to audit both teaching and non-teaching staff members of NSUBEB across the 25 Local Government Areas of the state.

"There were 28,058 staff in the primary schools across the state, adding that 26,00 7 of them were screened, out of which 23,721 were cleared and fit to work with SUBEB.

“When they heard that screening was going on they just came to clear themselves and they are on the payroll.

“Some of them went to roadside business centres to print out certificates and we could not ascertain their authenticity,” he said.

He asserted that most of these certificates were reading National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna and did not resemble the actual certificates issued by NTI.

Katako, however, noted that the committee also discovered pending promotion of teachers, and in Zone A, teachers with PhD were the ones teaching in classrooms while those with Masters were the ones in the office.

Responding, Dr Adamu Isah, the state Chairman of SUBEB, commended the committee for conducting the exercise effectively, and said that the board would follow due diligence of civil service rules to take decision on those found wanting.

He added that any teacher who could neither write nor read would be disengaged as teachers and engaged in another field.

“These people will be engaged as cleaners, nannies and some at local government offices in accordance with their capacities,” he stated.