No fewer than 73,000 applicants have applied for about 10,000 primary school teaching jobs advertised by the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (Kaduna SUBEB).

This was disclosed by the Executive Chairman, Kaduna SUBEB, Tijjani Abdullahi, in Kaduna on Monday at the start of the computer-based test at the Kaduna State University Centre for the shortlisted applicants.

Abdullahi, who was represented by the Board’s Permanent Member, Project, Mubarak Mohammed, said the examination was taking place simultaneously in centres in Kaduna, Zaria, and Kafanchan .

He said that the examination, which would last from October 17 to October 28, would be thorough, adding that only qualified and competent applicants would be recruited.

“Selecting the 30,000 to sit for the computer-based test was the first hurdle to be scaled. Writing the computer-based test is the second hurdle and only those who pass will be shortlisted for interview.

“I want to assure the public that only the best of the best will be recruited to teach in our classrooms so that they will give our children the best.

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“This is to build the strong educational foundation they need to thrive in their educational journey,” the SUBEB chairman said.

He noted that the board adopted the computer-based test to ensure that those that would be recruited were computer literate, to enable them align with the technologically-driven world.

“If you are not computer literate, it means you do not have a place in our classrooms,” Abdullahi told the prospective teachers.

Abdullahi added that the recruitment became necessary because of the identified teacher-gap in primary schools across the state, after a teacher-gap analysis conducted by the board.

The SUBEB chairman attributed the gap to retirement, resignation, deaths, and disengagement of incompetent ones, which he said created a huge gap in human resources in the board.

He stated that when concluded, the teachers would be deployed based on areas of need, adding that right from the application process, the candidates were asked to select the school they would like to be posted to.

Also speaking, the Permanent Member, Human Resource Management, Dr Christy Alademerin, said the recruitment would be based on merit.

Alademerin said after the recruitment, there would be opportunities for training and retraining of the teachers to improve their capacities to deliver quality teaching.

One of the applicants, Yakubu Emmanuel, who wrote the test, expressed optimism that he would be shortlisted for the interview if the process was fair and based on merit.

Emmanuel, who holds a Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE), said he loves the profession and appealed to the  Kaduna State Government to give him the chance to contribute his quota.

The Star