The Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) says it will sack 233 primary school teachers for allegedly presenting fake certificates.
The Executive Chairman of the Board, Mr Tijjani Abdullahi, who made this known at a news conference on Thursday in Kaduna, said that the measure was to ensure standard in public basic schools.
Abdullahi said that the board had in April began certificate verification exercise as part of its responsibility to ensure that all teachers possess the qualifications they presented during recruitment.
He said the board had so far verified 451 certificates by contacting 13 awarding institutions, nine of which had responded.
He said that the responses showed that 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 would 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 Dec. 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,” he said.
Abdullahi further disclosed that the board would conduct competency test for primary school teachers as part of continued assessment of the capacity of teachers for better service delivery.
He said that the competency test would be followed with series of training programmes for the teachers, beginning with 12,254 teachers in Jan. 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 said. (NAN)