TheCable

The Kano state government says it is making arrangement to redeploy 5,000 civil servants to schools as part of efforts to boost the education sector in the state.

Muhammad Garba, Kano commissioner for information, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

According to him, the decision followed the “adoption of the recommendation of the Technical Committee set up to look into the teaching staff challenges bedeviling free education policy” in the stage.

“Kano state Executive Council has directed the state civil service to redeploy about 5,000 civil servants with requisite qualification in education to classrooms as part of effort to strengthen the policy,” the statement reads.

“While adopting the report of the committee established by the Office of the Secretary to the State Government to identify such categories of civil servants with NCE, B.Ed. or Diploma in Education, the council, at its weekly meeting on Wednesday, also accepted the immediate establishment of an implementation committee.

“The affected staff serving in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Local Government Areas (LGAs) with vital teaching credentials are to be dispatched to fill existing posts in schools including tertiary institutions in the state.”

The commissioner added that there are “575 officers with teaching qualifications serving in MDAs, while 3,712 others were found in the 44 LGAs with duplicate functions”.

He added that of the total figure, “19 of them have PhDs, 55 have Masters, 1,100 with B.Eds, 2,366 have NCE and 10 with Diploma in Education”.

He explained that the decision is also to address the large number of workers at the local government offices.

“The committee’s findings also revealed that 508 officers, three of them with PhDs/Masters, 79 with B.Ed, 421 with NCE and five others with Diploma in Education were found in local governments engaged in administrative duties,” he said.

“For instance, while there’s an LGEA with only 60 staff, others have up to 274 with a state average of 151 per LGEA. Under ideal conditions, and especially with the advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), 25 officers can perform the management of an LGEA.

“To this end, all civil servants found in MDAs with teaching qualification and with more than five years to retire are to be posted back schools to teach. NCE holders under the state Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) should remain. Officers with B.Ed. are to be deployed to either Junior Secondary Schools or Senior Secondary Schools, while those with higher degrees are to be sent to tertiary institutions.”

He explained that the civil servants will undergo induction before their deployment, while they will also be trained every term.

The commissioner also noted that the state will work on a policy to mandate “all public office holders and senior civil servants to be engaged in schools within their localities at least twice every month for the purpose of information and inspection visits to encourage pupils to study”.