With the adoption of the recommendation of the Technical Committee set up to look into the teaching staff challenges bedeviling free education policy, Kano state Executive Council has directed the state civil service to redeploy about 5, 000 civil servants with requisite qualification in education to classrooms as part of effort to strengthen the policy.
While adopting the report of the committee established by the Office of the Secretary to the State Government to identify such categories of civil servants with NCE , B ED or diploma in Education, the council, at its weekly meeting on Wednesday, also accepted the immediate establishment of an implementation committee.
The state commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, who addressed a press briefing in his office, said the affected staff serving in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Local Government Areas (LGAs) with vital teaching credentials are to be dispatched to fill existing posts in schools including tertiary institutions in the state.
He said the committee discovered that there were 575 officers with teaching qualification serving in MDAs, while 3, 712 others were found in the 44 LGAs with duplicate functions.
Malam Garba stated that of this number, 19 of them have Ph ds, 55 Masters, 1,100 B Eds, 2,366 NCE and 10 Diploma in Education.
Malam Garba added that the committee’s findings also revealed that 508 officers, three of them with Ph ds/Masters, 79 B Ed, 421 with NCE and five others with Diploma in Education were found in local governments engaged in administrative duties.
The commissioner pointed out that zonal offices and local government areas have large concentration of officers.
“For instance, while there’s an LGEA with only 60 staff, others have up to 274 with a state average of 151 per LGEA. Under ideal condition, and especially with the advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), 25 officers can perform the management of an LGEA,” he added.
To this end, the commissioner said, all civil servants found in MDAs with teaching qualification and with more than five years to retire are to be posted back schools to teach, NCE holders under the state Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) should remain, officers with B Ed are to be deployed to either Junior Secondary School or Senior Secondary School, while those with higher degrees are to be sent to tertiary institutions.
Malam Garba also indicated that the reintegrated civil servants are to be given two weeks induction before deployment to schools and an additional one week refresher training every term.
The commissioner further stated that the setting up of the committee was in response to the learning crisis and government’s commitment to achieving the education 2030 agenda which seeks to ensure the provision of education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
He announced that a policy and strategy would also be developed to make it compulsory for all public office holders and senior civil servants to be engaged in schools within their locality at least twice every month for the purpose of information and inspection visits to encourage pupils to study.
Malam Garba said the draft Teacher Education Policy for the state would be finalized with the recently NCE approved National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) to promote standards in recruitment, redeployment incentives and provision of teaching and learning resources.
Source: Malam Muhammad Garba
