President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed the moves by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to sack and replace unqualified teachers in schools.
Buhari said “what El-Rufai is trying to do now is exactly what (a) man told me about 10 years ago. It is a very, very serious situation, when teachers cannot pass their exams that they are supposed to teach the children to pass. It is a very tragic situation we are in.”
The president endorsed el-Rufai’s moves while reading his official address during the Presidential Summit on education held Monday November 13, 2017 at Old Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja
While speaking after reading his official address,Buhari said: “To digress a little bit so that you know that I meant what I read.
“Having been an orphan, I still feel that whatever I did in life so far was built by boarding school. For nine years was in boarding school, three in primary and six in secondary school.
“In those days, teachers treat their students or children like their own children. If you did well they will tell you, you did well, if you don’t do well they never spared the rod.
“When I finished my secondary school, I didn’t work for a day, I refused to work for a day, I left home, I refused to work in the local government, and then I joined the army. And the army of that time we went through all we went through up-to the civil war.
“And then I listened to one of the Nigerians I respect, he said after his training here in Nigeria and the United States, he went to his alma mata, his primary school to see what he could contribute. I won’t mention his name but when he went, he couldn’t differentiate between the the children and the teachers.
Buhari continued: “And what El-Rufai is trying to do now is exactly what that man told me about 10 years ago. It is a very very serious situation, when teachers cannot pass their exams that they are supposed to teach the children to pass. It is a very tragic situation we are in and this our gathering together to me is one of the most important in this administration.”
It could be recalled that el-Rufai has moved to sack about 21,000 unqualified teachers in the state.He has however announced moved to employ the same number of qualified teachers.
Speaking earlier, Buhari commended the “Minister of Education (Mallam Adamu Adamu) and the entire education family for setting the stage for this national conversation that is aimed at refocusing the education sector not only to overcome the numerous challenges, but also to strengthen the Ministerial Strategic Plan that has already been developed by the ministry.”
The president also noted that “That our country is facing numerous challenges in education and all other sectors as a result of historical abuses, mindless impunity and corruption is not news to anyone.
“With an estimated 13.2 million children out of school, high illiteracy level, infrastructural deficit and decay, unqualified teachers, and inadequate instructional materials, to mention some of the challenges, we can clearly see the effect of decades of neglect that the education sector has suffered.
He said “We are determined to turnaround the sector for the better. We are already making appreciable progress in this respect. This summit must therefore, among other things, sharpen our strategies for addressing the challenges of basic and secondary education, teacher training and professional development; technical and vocational education.
“The summit must work to enhance quality in, and access to, higher education and other challenges in the sector that will debar us from attaining the SDGs and be among the top 20 economies in the world.
“My firm belief is that with the calibre of participants at this summit, the road to a better future is before us and we must chart it.
“It is my expectation that at the end of this summit, we shall come up with feasible, implementable but far-reaching action plans for the ministerial strategic plan that would make education play the pivotal role as the engine that drives national prosperity and development.
“While there are numerous other competing demands and responsibilities from different sectors of the economy, I want to assure you of this administration’s commitment to confronting and tackling the challenges in the education sector. This will be part of our deliberate policy of revitalizing education provisioning and capacity building.
“Ladies and gentlemen, let me in conclusion, emphasize that we must get it right in this country. To get it right means setting our education sector on the right path.
“No nation can achieve economic, social, political and cultural prosperity without a sound and functional education system.
“We should also bear in mind that the security and stability of the country hinges, to a large extent, on its ability to provide functional education to its citizens.”
