No Going Back On Teachers Sack – El-Rufai

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state, has ruled out any hope of recalling the 21,780 sacked school teachers in the state.

Reacting to Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigerian Union of Teacher (NUT) protest in the state on Thursday, the governor said no amount of resistance will rescind his decision to recall the sacked teachers.

The government has come under intense criticism following its decision to fire the teachers said to have failed a competency test.

On Thursday, labour leaders in and out of the state protested the governor’s decision with flags and placards singing union slogans at the gate of the Labour House, which is the NLC secretariat in the state.

But speaking on Channels TV on Thursday night, el-Rufai said there is no going back on the sack.

“We have already taken second, third and fourth looks at this situation. We have studied what previous governments have tried to do and there is no going back,” he said.

“I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we are not going to reverse our decision; these teachers are gone, we are going to employ new teachers.

“The process of testing and interviewing the 25,000 teachers we are hiring to replace the 21,780 that we have fired is on and we are going to go ahead with it.

“We are committed to ensuring that they (the pupils) get decent public education as I got it when I was growing up in Daudawa in Katsina state.

“I went to a public school and I got decent education. I was orphaned at the age of eight but I got free, basic education and that is why I am where I am.

“I intend, at whatever price, at whatever cost to bequeath that to children of ordinary people in Kaduna state. There is no going back.”

Labour leader had called on the state to train the teachers rather than sack them, but the governor said the teachers are “untrainable”.

“This administration of the APC in Kaduna state has already spent N650m on in the last two-and-a-half years since we took office. We have trained teachers, we have brought funds from the global partnership for education to train teachers,” he said.

“But you cannot train an illiterate to be a teacher. The situation we have in which people cannot answer questions that primary four people can answer, it means that they are incapable of being trained.

“Those that are talking about training do not get it. These ones that are going (sacked) are untrainable. They can do something else with their lives, and we will do everything to give them the opportunity to do so but not teaching.”