By Ubong Sampson
About 233 primary school teachers risk being sacked by the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for allegedly presenting fake certificates.
Disclosing this on recently while briefing newsmen in Kaduna, Executive Chairman of the Board, Tijjani Abdullahi said that the measure was to ensure standard in public basic schools.
According to Abdullahi, the board had in April begun a certificate verification exercise as part of its responsibility to ensure all teachers really possess the qualifications they presented during recruitment.
Abdullahi said the board had so far verified 451 certificates by contacting 13 awarding institutions, adding that while nine of the 13 had responded, the responses so far have shown that at least 233 teachers presented fake certificates.
The chairman also revealed that one of the institutions had disowned 212 teachers who claimed to have obtained their certificates from the institution.
According to him, the board will dismiss the 233 teachers with fake certificates, adding that their files will be forwarded to the Ministry of Justice for prosecution.
“For transparency, the names of the 233 teachers found to have presented fake certificates will be uploaded on the website of the Kaduna State Government on Thursday December 2.
“The major objective of this exercise is to ensure that all our teachers have the requisite credentials that constitute the basic qualifications for employment as teachers.
“The board will continue to check the integrity of the certificates presented by teachers to ensure that this critical profession is not devalued by impostors,” Abdullahi hinted.
He further disclosed that the board will conduct competency test for primary school teachers as part of continued assessment of the capacity of teachers for better service delivery.
According to him, the competency test will be followed by series of training programmes for the teachers, beginning with 12,254 teachers in January 2022.
“We have already signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Teachers Institute, the College of Education, Gidan Waya, and the Federal College of Education, Zaria, to conduct the training exercise,” he added.
