More than 10,000 applicants are vying for 1,000 primary school teaching positions approved by the Nasarawa State Government under a special rural recruitment initiative aimed at addressing teacher shortages in underserved communities.
The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdullahi Sule on Public Affairs, Peter Ahemba, disclosed this on Monday during a bi-monthly press briefing at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat in Lafia.
Ahemba said the recruitment exercise, being coordinated by the Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), was designed to strengthen basic education in rural areas by deploying qualified teachers to schools facing acute manpower shortages.
According to him, the state government engaged an independent consulting firm to oversee the recruitment process in a bid to ensure transparency, fairness and credibility.
He revealed that although more than 10,000 applications were received from candidates with qualifications ranging from the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) to diplomas and university degrees, only about 8,000 applicants participated in the screening examination.
Of those who sat for the test, only 600 candidates passed, falling short of the government's target of recruiting 1,000 teachers.
"The state government approved the recruitment of 1,000 rural teachers. The recruitment exercise was handed to a consulting firm to ensure that everything was done properly and transparently," Ahemba said.
"More than 10,000 applications were received from applicants with qualifications ranging from the Nigeria Certificate in Education to diplomas and university degrees. A screening exercise was conducted to identify the most qualified candidates.
"Out of the over 10,000 applicants, 8,000 participated in the screening examination, but only 600 passed. The consulting firm has completed that phase and handed the process over to SUBEB for the next stage."
He explained that the board is currently reviewing the outcome of the exercise to ensure that only qualified candidates are eventually recruited.
Ahemba further stated that successful applicants from the state's 13 local government areas would be deployed exclusively to rural schools as part of the government's strategy to improve access to quality education in underserved communities.
He assured applicants that the recruitment would remain strictly merit-based and urged them to await further communication from SUBEB and the consulting firm regarding the next phase of the exercise.
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