Percy Onyeka
Thousands of J-Teach temporary teachers employed by the Jigawa State government have started a nonviolent protest and interfered with the State Universal Basic Education Board’s (SUBEB) aptitude test, which is being held in order to hire 6,000 instructors.
Prof. Haruna Musa, the board chairman, is said to have evaded death in one of Federal University Dutse’s (FUD) centers.
The candidates objected to what they saw to be an attempt by certain authorities to manipulate the hiring process in defiance of Governor Umar Namadi’s directive for an open procedure.
Speaking to reporters on behalf of the disgruntled J-Teach applicants, Abbas Aujara claimed that 4,500 of them had been hired during the previous two years, and that during that time, they had to go through three verification exercises and five distinct aptitude examinations.
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He lamented: “We have spent two years as J-Teach staff contributing our own quota to Jigawa educational development on a token allowance.
“The governor had last month directed that we be considered as permanent teacher. We went for screening and documentation in accordance with the state’s civil service rules”.
Just last week, we were invited for another aptitude test, and you can see there are thousands of new faces, who are not J-Teach members that came for the test.”
According to him, subjecting them to another round of tests with freshers raises suspicion that the organisers of the test have a hidden agenda.
He said they were made to understand that the governor approved new rules for teachers’ recruitment, starting from placing candidates on temporary engagement to ensure only the qualified and those with passion were considered for the job.
“Unfortunately, it appears some people want to sabotage the governor’s effort in revitalising the education sector by hiring unqualified teachers, due to their selfish interest. That is why we blocked this exercise (aptitude text),” he said.
Aujara called on the governor to investigate and take appropriate action before his 12-point agenda is sabotaged.
Receiving the aggrieved J-Teach staff at Government House, Dutse, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Mustapha Kiyawa, promised to channel all their grievances to the governor, and assured them of justice.
Techrectory with Agency Report.
