Kebbi recruits 2,000 teachers, decries influx of children from Benin, Niger

THE Kebbi State Government has concluded the recruitment process of 2,000 new teachers to teach in some primary and secondary schools in the state.

Commissioner for Education, Kebbi State, Alhaji Muhammadu Magawata Aliero, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of a two-day media dialogue on Cash Transfer Programme being implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the state.

He, however, raised concern about the influx of children from neighbouring countries of Benin and Niger either to take advantage of free education being offered in the state or engage in street hawking.

He admitted that there was a shortage of teachers to carry out effective teaching in the schools as a result of an increase in enrollment, saying this informed the decision of the State Governor Atiku Abubakar Bagudu to initiate the process of employing additional teachers.

Aliero, said offer letters for the 2,000 new teachers were ready for distribution to them, adding that efforts were also on to improve on the existing infrastructure at all levels of education in order to improve quality of teaching and learning in the state.

He said: “Throughout this month (April), I was away to some local governments because we are recruiting about 2000 teachers.

“I went to all the local government headquarters and we have finished the recruitment of 2000. We will start giving the offer in a few days, Insha Allah. We designed a very nice format, where we will give automatic offer to anyone who made ‘A’,” he said.

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Kebbi and Zamfara are regarded as educationally disadvantaged states in the country, but the Commissioner said 2020, the volume of out-of-school children would be very low and depleted.

He added that going by the ongoing efforts the Kebbi would be the “least in the north with out-of-school children.”

Aliero lamented that one of the greatest challenges facing the state was the influx of children from neighbouring countries, explaining that not all the children seen hawking during school hours are from the state.

He said: “Kebbi is bordering two states. I mean the Republic of Niger and Benin. Around this time, there a lot of influx of their children for greener pasture in the country.

“The Governor was briefed about the situation last two years. He saw two trucks filled with children of various school ages. So the Governor stopped them and they said they were going to Zaria.

“When it is the rainy season, you won’t see them. They would have gone back for farming. Although in our state we identified about eight hundred and something.

“But during the rainy season, they were about four hundred to five hundred. Then we discovered that the influx from Niger Republic and Benin Republic is the cause,” he said.