Plateau sacks 122 primary school teachers

The Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has sacked 122 primary school teachers discovered to have gained employment with fake certificates.

Prof. Mathew Sule, Chairman of the board disclosed this during a press briefing on Tuesday in Jos.

Sule said the development followed the intense screening exercise recently conducted by the board for teachers in the state.

He explained that the decision to sack the erring teachers was in consonance with the public service rules of the state and the guidelines of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

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“In line with the directives by the TRCN that teachers without requisite qualifications should be disengaged, we conducted a series of screening for our teachers.

“Of the over 15, 000 teachers in the 2,537 public primary schools in Plateau, we have discovered that 122 have presented fake certificates to us.

“We followed all due process, including visiting the schools they claimed they have graduated from and found out they did not actually attend those schools.

“As a board, that is poised toward quality teaching and learning at the basic educational level, we decided to dismiss them,” he said.

The chairman said some of the affected teachers had claimed ignorance of their alleged criminal acts, while some owned up.

According to Sule, Gov. Simon Lalong had in 2017 graciously granted pardon to over 2,000 teachers who had similar challenges but were made to provide authentic certificates.

He explained that the educational system would not have the desired quality if unqualified teachers were allowed to remain in the system.

“We cannot get the desired quality in teaching and learning if we don’t have trained and qualified teachers.

“The quality of a learner is a replicate of the quality of teacher

“So, I want to call on learning institutions to put all measures on ground to curtail such sharp practices,” he urged.

The chairman also advised teachers who don’t have the requisite and genuine qualifications to go and obtain it, adding that the board would not compromise on quality. (NAN)