Kaduna School Pupils Protest Planned Sack of Teachers Who Failed Primary 4 Exams

There’s been a viral report on social media about a protest by primary school pupils in Kaduna State, against the planned sack of teachers who failed competency test organized by the State Government.

Copies of the test questions were also shared online, with questions like;

“Who is the current president of the United States?,

The full meaning of ICT and all, it’s hard to believe that over 21,000 of those teachers failed the test.

Facebook user, Zacham Bayei, who shared photos of the protest, wrote;

”News reaching me this morning that primary school pupils in a School in Kawo, Kaduna took to the street to protest the planned sack of over 21,000 teachers by the Kaduna Government over ‘failed’ competent test without human face. That a husband and a wife teaching in the school was affected…”

Last month, the reports of over 21,000 out of 33,000 teachers failing Primary Four examinations hit the web after the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai announced the test was conducted to test the teachers’ ability and competency.

According to the reports, thousands of primary school teachers in Kaduna state are to be sacked after failing the exams.

Nasir El-Rufai said 21,780 teachers, two-thirds of the total, had failed to score 75% or higher on assessments given to pupils.

He said 25,000 new teachers would be recruited to replace them. Mr El-Rufai made the comments at a meeting with World Bank representatives in the state capital, Kaduna.

“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,” he was quoted as saying.

The governor added that problems with pupil-teacher ratios across the state would also be addressed. He said some areas currently had one teacher for every nine pupils while in other areas the ratio was one to 100.