Thousands of temporary J-Teach teachers under Jigawa State government have embarked on peaceful protest and disrupted the aptitude test organised by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for the recruitment of 6,000 teachers.
Chairman of the board, Prof. Haruna Musa, reportedly escaped death in one of the centres at Federal University Dutse (FUD).
The candidates had protest over alleged plan by some officials to hijack the recruitment process against Governor Umar Namadi’s instruction for a transparent process.
Speaking to newsmen on behalf of the aggrieved J-Teach candidates, Abbas Aujara said 4,500 of them were recruited last two years, and in the process, they underwent five different aptitude tests and three verification exercises.
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. (Guardian)
