The
Kaduna Division of the National Industrial Court today issued an order
stopping the state government from going further with the plan to
sack 21,780 primary school teachers that failed a competency test
organised by the state government.
Recall
that in June, the state government organized a competency test for
primary school teachers in the state. Sadly, over 21, 000 of the
teachers failed the primary 4 set of questions given to them. Some of
the scripts released by the state government showed that many of the
teachers supplied ridiculous answers to basic questions they were asked.
About two-thirds of the teachers that sat for the competency test,
failed to score up to 75 percent. The state government
afterward announced it will be terminating the appointment of the
incompetent teachers.
This decision caused the state
union of teachers to on October 30th through their counsel, Samuel
Atum, file a lawsuit against the state government over the planned mass
sack.
At
the hearing today which was attended by hundreds of teachers and labour
leaders, the lawyer, Mr. Atum, praised the court for “graciously”
giving the order for the state government not to proceed with the mass
sack.
“This
is democracy and the premise of democracy is the rule of law, so we
expect nothing more than absolute submission by the state government to
comply with the order of the court. I have confidence that the
government will comply or obey this order.” he said
Legal
counsels to the state’s Attorney General and the State Government, as
well as Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) declined
comments when approached by journalists.
The
teachers who spoke to newsmen after the court order, said they were
very happy over the court's order against the state government
“It has given us hope. We hope too that the governor will obey the court order,” Zainab Sanusi, a teacher, said.
The case has been adjourned to February 6th 2018 for hearing.
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