I have read so much about the teachers in Kaduna that failed
a primary 4 exam and much has been said as regards if firing them or not firing
them is the right step.
Sadly, this same scenario presented itself in Kwara in 2007,
the then Governor Abubakar Bukola Saraki mandated his Commissioner of
Education, Bolaji Abdullahi to carry out an assessment of the competence of
teachers.
An aptitude and capacity test was organized for a total of
19,125 teachers in the state’s public school system. Out of these, 2,628 were
university graduates.
The teachers were given tests that were designed originally
for primary four pupils in English and Mathematics. At the end of the exercise,
only seven teachers out of the 19,125 passed the minimum aptitude and capacity
threshold. Only one out of the 2,628 graduate teachers passed the test, 10
graduates scored outright zero. What this actually means is 90% of the teachers
failed the primary 4 exams but not a single teacher was sacked.
Saraki realized that those teachers were themselves victims
of an educational system that had failed for so long.
The Commissioner of Education then, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi
was so embarrassed that he concluded that wrong people were in the teaching
profession and the future of the state’s children was in jeopardy. The tests
which were designed to determine the capacity of teachers to handle primary
school level Mathematics and English for children up to the age 10, have
clearly thrown up a challenge about the quality of teaching nationwide.
The primary school is important as a foundation level for
every child’s education, if teachers at that level are so incompetent, then
there is a lot of cause for anxiety.
The teachers themselves are not culprits, what they needed
at that time was help and that was the intent and essence of the test (To
determine areas that needed improvement). Assessment is not an end in itself,
it is to know the extent and nature of work that needs to be done.
Sacking teachers because they failed a test is like cutting
the head to get rid of a brain tumor, anybody with a knife can do that but only
a few can carry out the difficult surgery that the patient needs to stay alive
and that takes understanding, empathy and commitment to hard work. Today, 10
years after Kwara State held that test, the quality of education in public
schools in the state has really improved.
Saraki administration then designed what was called Teacher
Professional Development (TPD) supported by DFID/WORLD BANK. Under this
program, they developed what was called Teaching Manual, which reduced the
lesson plans to simple easy-to-follow manual from P1-P6. Then recruited a team
of SSIT (State Schools Improvement Team) made up of the few that did well and
lecturers in the state colleges of education. After training these SSIT, they
assigned them to 5 schools each, bought Okada for them and they went round
their allocated schools training the teachers on the job on the use of the
manuals and supporting them.
Saraki then set up the quality assurance unit to monitor
compliance. Within one year, parents started withdrawing their children from
private schools to public schools.
It is a little bit complex than I have narrated but I’m sure
those that were in government then will be able to shed more light, but it
became a model for the rest of the country and states started coming to Kwara
to understudy the programme.
States like Jigawa took it a little further by delivering
the teaching manual to teachers mobile phones in Hausa. It’s an incredible
strategy that turned the “Useless” teachers into enthusiastic students, willing
to learn so they could teach better.
This goes a long way to prove that the carrot and stick
approach can actually work in this situation. While the problem has been noted
and some of the teachers have been chastised, there is also a need to give them
a platform for improvement. We should be solutions driven at this point we are
in because Governance is not about exclusivity but inclusiveness.
Courtesy: Abiodun
Jimoh is from Ilorin, Kwara State.
Pix: Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education
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