Random Thoughts On Kaduna Teachers' Screening

Testing the efficiency of a serving teacher without classroom activities compares with testing the swimming capacity of fish in the mud. Teaching requires demonstration of knowledge and pedagogical skills. All that has been made public so far on Kaduna test items were instruments assessing knowledge of special subject areas.

Only NCE Primary Education Studies in our Colleges of Education teaches the core subjects (English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies...). A good test should factor the training context in which the teachers were trained. Testing teachers on all subjects even if it is on Primary Two content may come with surprises.

In-service training is one option between sacking and tolerating bad teachers. Some of us in the industry find it difficult to accept the assumption of 21,000 untrainable teachers in the teaching workforce of a given state. The only options in Kaduna are that one is either qualified or sacked.

I have not seen any Tweet or Facebook update from an affected teacher yet. A measure of how unfavourable the blackmail can be to their plight. Poor teachers against the heavy government propaganda machinery!

Many Nigerian 'professionals' (including politicians) may not compete favourably in the global benchmarks for their respective call. In some occasions, it is lack of real substance; in others, lack of certain aesthetics. It is therefore more about holistic derive for excellence than victimisation.

Whenever there's rising kidnapping, armed robbery and related criminal activities, we shouldn't forget to count among possible causes the unprecedented sudden loss of jobs by thousands of teachers.

Panic and scare are never the best ways for reform in a sane setting.

- Dr Mikail Barau