- Kano government paying teachers in private schools!
Hitherto, Nigerians were aware of the ghost workers syndrome whereby the staff lists of ministries, departments and agencies at all levels were bloated substantially with names of non-existent workers whose salaries and emoluments were fraudulently collected by unscrupulous elements in the system. The federal and state governments, as well as local government councils had, on diverse occasions over the years, announced the discovery of thousands of such ghost workers and their elimination from the staff roll and the consequent saving of humongous amounts of money that could have been illegally diverted into private pockets through this criminal enterprise.
However, the recent discovery in Kano State of 3,268 teachers employed and paid by the state government but deployed to teach in private schools is an entirely different kettle of fish altogether. These are not ghosts. They are living human beings serving in private schools but being paid by the state government in what amounts to some sort of subsidy for owners of the private schools. The number of teachers involved in this illegal transaction and the fact that the practice had been going on for over 10 years in a significant number of cases suggests that this is a carefully planned and executed scheme to defraud the state and undermine the public school education system.
This disturbing incident was disclosed to the media by the Public Relations Officer in the Kano State Ministry of Education, Mr Aliyu Yusuf, who stated that the affected teachers on the government pay roll were deployed to private, voluntary and community schools in the state. The fraud, he said, was discovered by a committee set up by the ministry to recall teachers illegally posted to such schools. If the setting up of the committee was as a result of a tip-off by concerned members of the public, then the state government deserves commendation for acting fast to uncover and put an end to the embarrassing anomaly. However, the authorities ought to be worried that such fraud was perpetrated for so long before it was discovered.
Mr Yusuf cited the instance of a single private school, which had more than 50 government-paid teachers, on its workforce. He revealed further that “In addition, some of them have furthered their studies from M.Sc and Ph.D. It was also discovered that, while on such postings, the teachers were enjoying their consistent promotions up to directorate cadre”. This shows that this grievous irregularity must have been perpetrated through collusion in the top hierarchy of the state’s ministry of education and the proprietors of the affected private schools.
It is noteworthy that even while such a large number of teachers on the government pay roll were surreptitiously posted to private schools, there are indications that the state has insufficient number of teachers in its public schools. This is plausibly why the Kano State Commissioner for Education, Mallam Mohammed Garba, announced plans by the government to redeploy 5,000 civil servants serving in ministries, departments and agencies as well as the local government councils, who have requisite qualifications in education, to fill existing vacancies in schools, including tertiary institutions in the state. This was one of the recommendations of a technical committee set up by the state government to look into the teaching staff challenges marring the implementation of its free education policy.
Private schools are set up by their proprietors as profit-making businesses. The fees these schools charge those who enroll in them are determined by certain variables, including meeting salary obligations to their teachers. It is difficult to comprehend how such schools could be collecting school fees from their pupils and students while passing on the responsibility of paying their teachers to the government, albeit illegally. There is certainly the need to get to the root of this matter with a view to punishing all those found culpable in order to deter and discourage future recurrence. It is also important that other state governments learn from this and take steps to uncover such fraud and sanction culprits where necessary.
