The face-off between Kaduna govt, NLC

THE recent face-off between the government of Kaduna State, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) over the planned sack of over 21,000 teachers who failed to pass the same examination they set for their students underlines the rot in  Nigeria’s education sector.

The Kaduna State government should be eulogised and supported by well-meaning and patriotic Nigerians for exposing this shameful practice caused by bad governance and corruption. This show of shame is everywhere in all the 36 states.

The Kaduna State government has taken the bull by the horns and everyone, including the principal culprits, namely the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (Board), West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO) and governments at all level are to blame for this shameful scenario. Now or never, the needed corrections must be effected.

The NUT leaders should cover their faces in shame for teaming up with the NLC to demonstrate against the government’s stance instead of embracing dialogue with the government.

It should be thankful that the government did not request the salaries undeservedly received by these teachers. The government should probe the qualifications of the erring teachers.

JAMB should be blamed for this shameful act given its allocation of the least cut-off marks in the entrance examination into Colleges of Education, attracting negativities to the institutions.

Dullards gain admission into the schools, manoeuvering their way through them via examination malpractices and bribery. Now, innocent pupils in Kaduna State are at the receiving end.

The undue promotion of English in examinations like the SSCE and UTME is also partly responsible for this situation.

We hold foreign languages in high esteem and fail to promote ours, whose full understanding will naturally help and boost the ability to effectively learn and speak foreign languages. The decision to neglect the compulsory teaching of our major languages (Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa) is now causing problems.

The prohibition of our local languages in schools is a grievous error by the government, parents and guardians. Soon, if urgent and purposeful action is not taken, the local languages could go into extinction.

Hence, the government should ensure the teaching of our local languages at all level of education. Even if a foreigner wants to study in Nigeria, he or she such must learn and pass one of the major languages as a prerequisite for such admission.

Second, JAMB should raise the cut-off bar for  entrance into Colleges of Education.