By: Blessing Tunoh-Asso

3,815 teachers in Borno state may be transferred to the ministry of environment to start new careers as tree planters.

This is according to the state governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum on Thursday after receiving a report submitted by a committee he had constituted to conduct basic literacy and numeracy competency test of teachers across the 27 LGAs in the state.

An alarmed Zulum described as “very scary” some of the findings in the submitted report.

The State’s Commissioner for Education, Engr. Lawan Wakilbe, presented the committee’s report to Governor Zulum at the Government House in Maiduguri.

A total number of 17, 229 teachers were assessed out of which it was discovered that only 31 per cent were competent enough to teach.

The Borno state governor’s Head of Communication and Strategy Mal. Isa Gusau gave a breakdown of the submitted report in a statement.

“The report revealed that out of 17,229 teachers across the 27 LGAs, only 5,439 representing 31.6% proved competent to teach, while 3, 815 teachers representing 22.1% are not competent to teach and are not trainable.” Gusau stated.

He further explains that the report had also revealed that “7,975 teachers representing 46.3% were found not fully competent but trainable. The report also revealed that 2, 389 teachers representing 13.9% have been teaching without any formal qualification from any institution.”

The report also said that of all the 17,229 teachers, 1,627 representing 9.4% are degree holders; 8,153 representing 47.3% are NCE holders; 713 representing 4.1% are teachers grade II certificates’ holders while 2,281 representing 13.2% are SSCE/GCE holders with the remaining 2,389 representing 13.9% not having any formal certificate.

“We cannot move Borno forward unless we are able to sanitize our public schools system and If I am able to sanitize education, I would have achieved 50% of what I set out to achieve as Governor”, Zulum is quoted to have said.

According to Gusau, Governor Zulum will not the 3,815 untrainable teachers despite the report “but he will, depending on the recommendations made by the Committee, consider approving the transfer of the teachers to areas where they can perform other tasks such as tree planting at the Ministry of Environment.”