Council fumes, probes states for sacking 9,392 teachers

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria on Tuesday said it would probe the recent sacking of teachers by some state governments.

No fewer than 9,392 teachers were sacked by some state governments between January2020 and June 2022, according to the analysis of media reports conducted by our correspondent.

The TRCN is the agency of the Federal Government responsible for registering and conducting professional examinations for teachers in Nigeria.

Recently, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-rufai, reportedly sacked over 2,000 teachers.

According to the state government, the teachers were sacked because they failed competency tests.

In August 2020, Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, sacked a total of 5,666 teachers.

The state government said the teachers were sacked because they were illegally recruited.

In October 2020, the Plateau State Government announced the sacking of 122 teachers after discovering that they presented fake certificates.

In May 2021, Niger State Government, through the State Universal Basic Education Board, announced that a total of 20 teachers were sacked.

In December 2021, the Kaduna State Government sacked 233 teachers for presenting fake certificates.

In 2022, newly elected governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, announced the sacking of 1,000 teachers from its teaching service.

According to Soludo, the sacked teachers were “the affected PTA teachers who were converted to the school system in the last days of the last administration in irregular, hazy circumstances.”

In June 2022, the Kaduna State Government again announced the sack of 2,357 teachers.

The spokesperson of the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board, Hauwa Mohammed, in a statement, said the board conducted a competency test for over 30,000 teachers in December 2021.

She said 2,192 primary school teachers, including the NUT National President, Mr Audu Amba, were dismissed for refusing to sit for the competency test.

Mohammed noted that 165 of the 27,662 teachers that sat for the competency test were also sacked for poor performance.

Speaking in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday, the Registrar of the TRCN, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, said, “We will study the issue on ground. For Anambra State, the report we got through the state coordinator, TRCN, was that the teachers were not recruited properly.

“We have carried out our evaluation and the state government has said that it will regularise the employment.

“In Kaduna State, we are still waiting for the report through the TRCN state coordinator.

“By Monday, next week, there will be a full report which we will make available.”