Kaduna teachers: Matters arising

The report that 21,780 out of 33,000 teachers failed the primary four test administered to test their competence by the Kaduna State government is really appalling. The teaching profession seems to have lost the integrity that should have been one of its exclusive features. It demeans the teaching career the more in Nigeria, where teachers are seen as a group of people who could not get or qualify for the more lucrative jobs in the society. Though we have quack doctors, engineers and fake lawyers, other professionals are not a laughingstock as Nigerian teachers are. They are hardly heard whenever they cry, even with their voices the loudest. The challenges facing teachers and teaching job are numerous, and it is pertinent to consider some before we eventually criticise the teachers who couldn’t pass what they teach their pupils. Some might exonerate them, shifting the blame on the state government and Nigeria as a whole. Even though their poor performance cannot be totally defended, we can still identify some issues for consideration, perhaps to avoid its reoccurrence in the state or any state, even at the federal level.

Nepotism, favourism and tribalism have all for long been determining almost all opportunities for Nigerians. Merit is not a yardstick while employing or recruiting people. In universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions, there is no room for merit that would have helped to admit the best from the applicants. The man-know-man philosophy and “connections” come ahead of qualifications and credibility. They lobby for admissions, they lobby to sail through the rigorous academic work, they lobby to serve their fatherland at states or locations they desire, and they lobby to find their ways into the civil service which they deliberately or unconsciously bastardise. Meritocracy, which could have brought out the best from all sectors and systems, suffers, or simply put, is neglected. Tell them your ethnic group or your state of origin, tell them your religion and faith—if all this is irrelevant, tell them whom you know, who is at the “top”. That is the modus operandi in Nigeria.

The current Kaduna State government led by Mallam Nasir el-Rufai inherited the public school teachers and other workers in the civil service of the state. He and his government couldn’t be faulted now. How were they recruited by the previous administrations? Were the most qualified and experienced applicants selected and appointed? Were the appointed ones properly screened and tested? Answers to these questions will reveal one of the factors that contributed to the mass failure in the test. The Kaduna State government cannot be exempted. Since its inauguration in 2015, it would have employed and recruited people to fill the vacancies. How did it all go? Perhaps the current administration is compiling more problems for the later regimes, too.

We cannot have a poor education system and expect good products that will work assiduously for the overall development of our nation. There wouldn’t have been much surprise if we considered how teachers are produced in Nigeria. Those who couldn’t make it to the university often put in for educational courses at colleges of education. And these colleges are believed to be meant for average and below-average students. This also affects the universities where faculties of education are dumping grounds for those who couldn’t secure admissions into faculties of law, pharmacy, technology and college of health sciences. Cut-off marks for education courses at the universities are always haphazardly low. So, what should we be expecting? Probably a worse educational system. The attention of governments at all levels are not on teacher training. The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board pegged marks at less than 160 for admission consideration in colleges of education. We can imagine the calibre of teachers that would be produced. Governments channel huge funds into training engineers, lawyers, doctors, architects, among others, leaving little for colleges and faculties of education. This should be more worrisome than the performance of the Kaduna State teachers. Before we condemn the outputs, it is pertinent to examine the inputs.

It is a fact that adults seldom read after their graduation. Complacency fully comes in once the adults are gainfully employed. What else would they be running after? After all, it is the government’s job that requires little effort to get promotion. It might be argued that teachers should read often if other workers shun books because they would have to teach. Refuting the argument is easier. One, most of the teachers themselves do not understand what they teach. I have already highlighted how they got the appointments. How do they impart knowledge? These teachers rely heavily on textbooks without adequately and pedagogically explaining what they claim to be teaching the unsuspecting pupils. There are enough proofs to justify this. Perhaps this is just an assumption, but I think that in-service trainings are rare for teachers. Absence of and inadequate in-service trainings exacerbate the ugly trend. Taken that unqualified and inexperienced applicants were employed for the teaching job, trainings and retraining could help brush up their academic prowess.

Lastly, a fact emerged just after the test. The state government wants to relieve most of the teachers of their appointments. If they had known, they would have borrowed from the steps taken by Edo State teachers on grade level 16, who boycotted the competency test organised by the state government. That could have saved their jobs. Unfortunately, the Kaduna State government blew the wind that exposed the hen’s bum. It washed their dirty linen in public glare. Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s words, “The hiring of teachers in the past was. politicized and we intend to change that by bringing in young and qualified primary school teachers to restore the dignity of education in the state” should be matched with action. Other states may later take a leaf from the approach of the state government. Sacrificing merit on the altar of tribe, ethnic, Religion and faith should have been a forgotten norm.

• Faboade writes in from Gbongan, Osun State.