Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has revealed shocking details about the state of education in the region, disclosing that 80 percent of illegally recruited secondary school teachers cannot write an acceptance letter. Speaking during a meeting with Christian leaders under the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at the Government House, the governor firmly rejected a request by CAN’s Nasarawa State Chairman, Very Reverend Dr. Sunday Emma, to retain the unqualified teachers.
“You are asking me to absorb them. Reverend, look at it two ways. I was told some of these people who paid money are not even qualified to teach.
Some of them paid as much as 600,000 to 700,000 naira for jobs where they’d earn less than 100,000. And 80 percent of them can’t even write acceptance letters. If we are helping them, we are not helping our education system,” the governor stated. Governor Sule revealed that upon assuming office in 2019, he commissioned a baseline survey of schools to identify the challenges within the state’s educational sector.
The findings painted a dire picture, with experts recommending improvements in infrastructure, curriculum, and the recruitment of qualified teachers.
“They said we needed teachers and suggested starting with 1,000. We approved this, but the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), which we recently suspended, went ahead and recruited over 1,000 additional teachers without authorization,” the governor explained.
Governor Sule emphasized that he had rejected personal slots in the recruitment process, urging the TSC to focus on merit-based hiring.
“Our educational system is grossly decayed. If we employ teachers based on who-knows-who, we won’t achieve the reforms we need,” he said.
The governor also criticized the reluctance of many recruited teachers to work in rural areas, noting that most preferred to remain in urban centers like Lafia, Akwanga, and Keffi.
“You cannot bring people who cannot teach and who refuse to go to villages where we need teachers.
They insist on staying in the cities. These are the problems we’re facing,” he remarked.
Governor Sule announced plans to hold a fresh round of interviews for all recruited teachers, including those from the initially approved 1,000 slots. The goal, he said, is to ensure that only competent and qualified candidates are employed.
“Let us select the best teachers so they can be given equal opportunities. We can’t get it right if we fail to do the right thing. My dream is to get education right in Nasarawa State.
That’s the dream of my administration, but we can’t achieve it unless we are honest with ourselves,” he concluded.
