Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that no amount of blackmail and propaganda will stop him from reforming education in the state.

He made this assertion on Thursday during a consultative meeting with members of the National Assembly from Kaduna State.

Controversy trails the decision of the state government to sack about 22,000 teachers who failed the competency test conducted for them in June.

However, the governor maintained that “the education reform is necessary hard work, and will not be derailed by propaganda, blackmail, and deliberate misrepresentation of facts; reform is not restricted to recruiting and retaining competent teachers.”

“We are constructing and reconstructing schools, classrooms, updating the curriculum, providing facilities, teaching aids and teachers’ welfare. We removed the career barrier for teachers in 2015; teachers in Kaduna State can rise to Grade Level 17 (Permanent Secretary grade) without having to stop being teachers.”

Governor El-Rufai further called on the lawmakers to help save future generations from ‘servitude’ by ensuring that quality public education is offered in the state.

He informed them that government has received 43,806 applications from prospective teachers in public primary schools in the state, adding that all shortlisted applicants would be subjected to oral and practical examinations.

According to him, interview and final verification would also be conducted to ascertain the authenticity of their qualifications, while those who scale through the screening would undergo further training before their deployment to classrooms.

“The issue of ensuring quality and competent teachers in public schools is something crucial and doable, but it requires courage, sincerity and honesty as guiding principles.

“We are all products of quality public schools and can compete anywhere in the world – we are beneficiaries of quality education from public schools and we have achieved a lot from the sacrifices made by previous leaders.