About 1300 teachers in Kaduna have failed in tests generally set for primary four pupils, Commissioner for Education Alhaji Usman Mohammed has revealed.
He made the shocking disclosure at an education summit tagged "Education for all is responsibility of all", held at the Hassan Usman Katsina House yesterday.
"A total of 1,599 teachers selected from across the state were given primary four tests in Mathematics and Basic literacy. Only one of them scored 75 percent, 250 scored between 50 to 75 percent and 1,300 scored below 25 percent," he said.
According to him, the same examination was conducted for 1,800 primary school pupils but that larger percent of them failed woefully.
"We are not surprised about the performance of the pupils because how can they know it, when their teachers don't know it," he added.
The commissioner said larger percentage of the head teachers of the primary schools are not competent, and also that majority of the Education Secretaries of local government areas are appointed based on political patronage hence their inability to perform well.
In November last year, late Governor Patrick Yakowa also disclosed at the graduation ceremony of the National Teachers Institute, Kaduna, that a verification exercise by the state government had revealed no fewer than 2,000 teachers with fake certificates employed in public schools.
Mohammed said the state has established a quality assurance board to evaluate and monitor standard of education in the state.
The chairman of the state House of Assembly committee on education Yunusa Mohammad said out of the 36,000 teachers in the state, 15,000 are not qualified.
The chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Ishaya Dare Akau said for the rot in the sector to be addressed, local government chairmen must give attention to the primary schools sector.
"The problem we are facing today is as a result of problems in the education sector. The issue of Boko Haram is one of it. Our failure to train these youths is making us to spend more money on security. If you fail to spend money on the education of the children, one day you will spend more money in buying bullets to kill them," he said.
