The Kano State Government has announced the plan to return all civil servants with teaching qualifications to schools to help tackle the teaching staff challenges in the state.
Mallam Muhammad Garba, the Commissioner of Education, Kano State unveiled this plan during a press briefing in Kano on Sunday, June 6, 2021.
Garba stated that the directive is in line with the recommendation of a technical committee set up by the office of the Secretary to the State Government to look into the teaching staff challenges bedeviling the government’s free education policy.
“The affected staff serving in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Local Government Areas (LGAs) with vital teaching credentials are to be dispatched to fill existing posts in schools including tertiary institutions in the state”, Garba disclosed.
The Kano State Executive Council has reportedly identified close to 5000 civil servants with the requisite teaching qualifications and has given directives to the state’s Head of Service to redeploy them to classrooms.
The technical committee reportedly identifies the categories of civil servants affected by the decision as those with NCE, B.ED or Diploma in Education.
The council has agreed to set up an immediate implementation committee to deploy the affected civil servants without further delay.
The committee reportedly gave the breakdown of civil servants with teaching qualifications as 575 serving in MDAs, while 3, 712 others were found in the 44 LGAs with duplicate functions.
The Commissioner further explained that 19 of them have PhDs, 55 Master degrees, 1,100 B Eds, 2,366 NCE and 10 with Diploma in Education.
The findings equally revealed that 508 of the affected officers were engaged in administrative work in the local government.
Garba, moreover stated that Zonal Offices and Local Government Areas experienced a large concentration of officers.
“For instance, while there’s an LGEA with only 60 staff, others have up to 274 with a state average of 151 per LGEA. Under ideal conditions, and especially with the advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), 25 officers can perform the management of an LGEA”, he said.
Besides, he indicated that the reintegrated civil servants are to be given two weeks induction before deployment to schools and an additional one-week refresher training every term.
