Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Thursday said that over 40,000 people have so far applied for teaching in public primary schools in the state.
The governor made this statement, following the planned retrenchment of 21,780 primary school teachers alleged to have failed a competency test conducted by the state government.
The government has since announced vacancies for about 25,000 new teaching positions and called for the replacement of over 20,000 teachers who failed the test.
The development drew the attention of the Nigeria Labour Congress, which responded by leading members of the Kaduna chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers to protest the state government’s move to sack the teachers.
A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Governor, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, noted that his principal disclosed the figures when he met members of the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday.
The statement said el-Rufai urged the lawmakers to save the future generation by ensuring that they received quality education in the state.
According to the statement, the governor informed the lawmakers that the state government had received 43, 806 applications from prospective teachers in public primary schools in the state.
He explained that all shortlisted applicants would be subjected to oral and practical examinations, to be followed by interviews and final verification to ascertain the authenticity of their qualifications.
The governor said the successful applicants would undergo training before their deployment to classrooms to teach.
