Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state has noted that the state is in need of additional 13,000 teachers to bridge the gap with educationally advantaged states in the country.
The Governor made the disclosure yesterday while receiving World Bank officials led by its task team leader, Dr. Olatunde Adekola in his office. He said the state has a deficit of 16,000 classes, he lamented that the number was a major factor to realising the goal of having at least 50 pupils per class.
Masari said he inherited the problem from his predecessor, but assured that efforts were being made to address the situation.
He said due to the financial implication involved in recruiting additional full-time teachers, the state borrowed a leaf from federal government’s N-Power programme and came up with its own programme; ‘S-Power’.
The governor explained that the programme is aimed at recruiting 5,000 teachers who have requisite qualification, particularly the National Certificate in Education (NCE), to teach in primary schools across the state.
The teachers would be paid a monthly stipend of N5, 000, and the programme is to run for a period of two years.
Masari further said that as the state’s finances improve, full-time teachers would be employed as replacement for the S-Power workers.
