Niger state government has uncovered no fewer than four thousand unqualified teachers in its service across the state.
However, they will not be laid off but rather given an option to go and retrain immediately and come back for reabsorbtion.
Governor Sani Bello disclosed this following the report he received from the Committee set up on headcount of teachers in public schools in the state at the Government House, Minna.
The Governor said even from the report he received indicating that there are 80 percent qualified teachers in the state, the development is commendable and encouraging.
“The outcome of the headcount of teachers by the committee set up that shows that there are eighty percent qualified teachers in our service is encouraging and commendable.
“The number of the unqualified teachers,(4,000) is high but we will not sack them but rather give them an option to go back to school for retraining and come back into the service in order to ensure quality education in public schools in the stste,” the Governor declared.
Governor Bello directed Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Ahmed Matane to set up an implementation committee on the findings made by the committee.
“Let us identify our teachers and see how we can support them because there are indications that our teachers are suffering”, he remarked.
He said the implementation committee should be drawn from the Ministry of Education, Nigeria Union of Teachers(NUT), and State Universal Basic Education(SUBEB) urging the Committee to carry out their functions without sentiments but rather pay attention to areas where there are few schools so that they will get more and should be close to communities.
Chairman of the Technical Committee on the Teachers Headcount, Comrade Labaran Garba while presenting the report explained that, there are 3,135 primary schools across the state with a total of 24, 061 teachers out of which 19, 358 are qualified while 4,703 are unqualified.
He also revealed that the state has 498 secondary schools with 6, 870 teachers of which 962 are unqualified.
Labaran further disclosed that there are 2,406 Local Government Education Administrative staff where 1,276 have teaching qualifications while 1,130 do not have.
He advised government to sustain the exercise after every three years for effective and efficient educational planning in the state.