Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger State has said that 60 per cent of primary and secondary school teachers in public schools in the state used fake and invalid certificates to obtain teaching jobs.
Bello made the statement when he received members of the Board of Directors of Bida Emirate Education Forum, led by its Chairman, Prof. Jonathan Ndagi, in Minna on Wednesday.
He said that the attention of the state government had been drawn to the fact that most primary and secondary school teachers used fake certificates to get employment.
According to him, most of the teachers in public schools do not have the requirement and are not qualified to teach.
“Information reaching us is that majority of our teachers in public schools do not have the competency to teach and that is why the state has record of mass failure in WAEC and NECO.
“Primary school is the basic foundation for children, if the foundation is faulty, then we will bring graduating students who cannot compete with their compatriots”, he said.
The governor directed the Ministry of Education to look at the challenges facing public schools and suggest how best government can intervene.
“Identify the genuine teachers and the fake ones. The real teachers will be compensated and paid well.
“Teachers’ salaries will be reviewed and those with fake certificates will be fished out because if we allow this to continue it will mean the children of the ordinary men don’t have hope,” he added.
Earlier, Ndagi disclosed that the emirate generated N107 million as Internally Generated Revenue since 2001 to date.
He said the organisation spent N124 million on the renovation of classrooms, establishment of computer-based test centres and creation of women development centres.
The chairman added that the emirate also sponsored 150 indigenous students for pre-degree programmes in Federal University of Technology, Minna.
He said that the state government only supported the emirate with N20 million since 2001 and called for more support
