• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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NUT kicks against Kaduna competency test, threaten strike

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The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has kicked against the competency test organised by the Kaduna State government in which 2,357 teachers were sacked last week, describing it as mischievous.

The national leaders of NUT made this known on Wednesday in a media conference in Abuja where they disclosed that the union is rejecting the sacking of 2,357 teachers by Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, and demands a reversal of the action.

Kelvin Nwankwo, the deputy president of NUT who led members of the union’s national executive council to the media conference declared the action of the governor null and void.

The NUT national leaders alleged that the exercise was designed El-Rufai’s administration to achieve its inglorious aim of casualisation of the teaching profession in Kaduna State.

Besides, the teachers stated that Audu Titus Amba, the union’s president did not fail El-Rufai’s competency test as alleged by the state government.

Hence, they insisted that the state government’s action must be reversed or the union will embark on strike to press home its stand.

“You know our members are well-dedicated people. This is the only union that does not have one illiterate among us. Remember that because of the competency test issue, we went to court, we are law-abiding citizens and we felt that is the only way we can resolve this. But if it becomes necessary that we must go on strike, it would be a nation-wide strike”, Nwankwo stated.

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The teachers claimed that the governor’s action was aimed at intimidating the union’s president and humiliating the teachers in Nigeria.

The union prescribed that the Kaduna State government should rather embrace a continuous teacher training programme against such supposedly competency tests, which they believe would at the end of the day improve knowledge and service delivery by teachers in public schools in the state as obtained in other professions such as nursing, medicine, and law.

The reiterates that the very concept of competency test is an aberration and absurd having regard to the fact that the teachers in Kaduna State have prior to their recruitment in the state public service, attended schools and institutions statutorily saddled with the responsibility of teacher education and these institutions have certified them to be competent, fit and proper to be teachers.

According to Nwankwo, “Kaduna State is the second most indebted state in Nigeria, and the state government is on a free roller coaster move to satisfy the conditions handed down to it by its creditors, which normally includes downsizing of the public service without even the remotest regards to our peculiar circumstances.”

The union reaffirmed its commitment to stand with its revered Titus Amba, the president, and all the teachers in the state, who have fallen victim to the anti-labour policies in Kaduna State and which policies have defied all logic and lacking in the milk of human kindness.