Competent Test: Gov. El-rufai Report Inaccurate, Not Strategic

By Bomba Dauda

An educationist and founder, National Coordinator of Center for Management and Educational Development in Africa, IMEDA, Malam Tanimu Abdallah criticized the Kaduna State government of misplaced priority in the educational sector.  Adding that, the Kaduna State government failed to dissipate its energy towards the desired intervention needed to drive the sector forward, rather it has expended it in the wrong direction and resorted to propaganda and blackmail.

Abdallah scolded the government for cooking up stories and countless allegations in an aggressive move to justify its so-called competency test and the corresponding intended downsizing exercise through sham process. According to Abdallah, the entire competency test lacks transparency and the government that was part of the problem in the education sector now appears to be the one blaming the teachers of incompetency. “We are all aware of the fact that the government of the day converted non-teaching staffs to teachers and the  scripts of those the governor is displaying on his twitter account belong to the non-teaching staffs that he converted to teachers and not the ones that went through normal teachers training or graduates as he is portraying,” has said.

Abdallah expressed misgivings over what he referred to as a government that “lack clear cut position” and also demanded to know why a government that confirmed some teachers to be incompetent is asking the same teachers to re-apply for the same job the government declared them unfit.

Abdallah reprimanded the government on its knee-jerk approach to issues, however, he condemned the entire competency test exercise on lack of accurate and strategic report since the names of death people appeared in the final list of those who failed the exams. “How can a government who claims to be well-organized in all of its dealings, organized an exam and have the names of those who didn’t write the exams and even death people in the final list. This singular act underscores the credibility of the exams rubbishes the integrity of the institution or government that organized the exams.”

He also made reference to Shehu Othman Sani, Permanent Member 2 of the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) who want to help sack teachers but, couldn’t explain the acronym “ESSPIN.”  “The case of Sani is worse than that of the teachers that the government has been blackmailing. How and why the SUBEB boss couldn’t explain ESSPIN (which stand for Education Sector Support in Nigeria) on a live TV interview and yet, El-rufai never deemed fit to sack him but, want to sack teachers?”