Zulum vows to sanitise teaching profession in Borno

Borno State governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, on Thursday, described as “very scary” some findings submitted to him by a committee he had constituted and tasked with conducting basic literacy and numeracy competency assessment of 17,229 local education authority teachers across 27 local government areas of the State.

The state’s Commissioner for Education, Engr Lawan Abba Wakilbe, presented the committee’s report to Governor Zulum at the Government House in Maiduguri. Members of the committee, including chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board, Bulama Kagu, a professor of education, was in attendance.

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The committee had engaged academics from different education stakeholders in the state before and during assessment tests conducted in January, 2022, across the 27 local government areas of the state.

The report revealed that out of 17,229 teachers across the 27 LGAs, only 5,439 representing 31.6% proved competent to teach, while 3, 815 teachers representing 22.1% are not competent to teach and are not trainable.

The report however revealed that 7,975 teachers representing 46.3% were found not fully competent but trainable.

The report also revealed that 2, 389 teachers representing 13.9% have been teaching without any formal qualification from any institution.

Speaking after receiving the report, Professor Zulum described the findings as “very scary”. He said the committee members had informed him that they came across an NCE holder who could not write NCE during the test but yet teaching students.

“We cannot move Borno forward unless we are able to sanitise our public school system, and If I am able to sanitise education, I would have achieved 50% of what I set out to achieve as governor”, Zulum said.

He noted that he decided to set up the assessment committee after a series of spontaneous assessments of teachers during his regular unscheduled trips to local government areas.

Despite the report, Governor Zulum pledged that he would not sack the 3,815 untrainable teachers but will, depending on the recommendations made by the committee, consider approving the transfer of the teachers to areas where they can perform other tasks such as tree planting at the Ministry of Environment.