On teachers, LG workers in Kaduna

IN the last two months, there has been uneasy calm among civil servants in Kaduna State. This is as a result of the competency test conducted by the state government for primary school teachers in the state. Only 12,000 out of the 33,000 teachers were said to have scored 75 per cent and above.

The state governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has threatened to sack the 21,000 teachers who failed to score the required marks.

The statement is sending shivers down the spines of some teachers, with many people describing the planned action as untimely.

However, another circular was released regarding the reduction of local government staff. This was followed by an interview aired live by media stations across the state in which the governor affirmed his resolve to dismiss some workers.

Going by the circular, every local government is expected to retain no more than 285 workers. With this directive, approximately 6,000 local government workers will lose their jobs.

Nobody can deny the fact that the planned restructuring is meant to overhaul our local governments which have become a haven of redundancy, inefficiency and corruption in recent times.

The timing of the reform  is, however, wrong. Amid economic recession, disengagement of workers will only compound the problem.

Governor el-Rufai, you have said it times without number that the state internally generated revenues have increased significantly. This affirms the ability of the state to meet its salary obligations.

Sacking thousands of workers will have negative repercussions on the state.  First, it will create insecurity. Second, it will breed an environment of distrust between the disengaged staff and the government.

Many educationists have advised the governor to retain the non-performing teachers but make them to undergo retraining. It seems that he has not taken the advice yet.

We hope that the governor will consider the grave implications of the policies for the state.

Ibrahim Pambegua,

Kaduna State.