The Nasarawa State Government has announced that only 600 out of 8,000 candidates passed the recent competency screening examination for rural teaching positions in the state.
This exceptionally low pass rate leaves the state short of its original goal to recruit 1,000 new teachers to boost manpower across its underserved, hard-to-reach communities.
The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdullahi Sule on Public Affairs, Hon. Peter Ahemba, disclosed this during his bimonthly press briefing on Monday.
According to Ahemba, the State Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) received ten thousand applications.
He said: “So out of these 8,000 that participated, only 600 passed the examination.
“Only 600 out of 8,000 that participated passed the examination, and that is actually below the number the government is looking for.
“So already, the consulting firm has concluded the process at that stage and handed it back over to the State Universal Basic Education Board for continuation of the process.
“As we speak, the board is looking into it with a view to seeing that only those qualified are engaged.”
Ahemba therefore warned job recruiters not to interfere in the process by swindling the public by promising them recruitment through the back door, as the state government will not take it lightly with those involved in any sharp practices.
He said: “So I want to warn sincerely that there will be no room whatsoever for any sharp practices as far as this recruitment exercise is concerned.
“We are happy that the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Kassim Muhammad Kassim, is doing the right thing and is insisting that, based on His Excellency’s directive, only the right candidates will emerge at the end of the day.”
According to the governor’s aide, all the recruited teachers will be posted to rural areas to take care of the manpower needs in those places.
“I want to assure you that the state government under Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule is not leaving any stone unturned as far as coming up with the best for our pupils across our rural schools is concerned.
“And that is why government is doing everything possible to ensure that the exercise is transparent and that those who will be engaged eventually are only qualified teachers to man our primary schools in all the rural communities across the state,” he added.
Speaking further, Ahemba said following the state government’s commitment in ensuring that public schools have the required manpower, structures and other facilities, it has approved the construction of three-storey building blocks of classrooms each, one in each of the three senatorial zones, which are Keffi, Akwanga and Lafia zones.
He, however, revealed that the federal government has approved the construction of model schools across three senatorial zones as a reward for what the state government has been doing in the area of primary education.