14,000 candidates sit for Federal Teachers Scheme exams
By Joseph Erunke – Abuja
No fewer than 14,729 candidates wrote the 2020/2021 Federal Teachers’ Scheme, FTS, examinations conducted Monday across the country.
The examination for teachers which is a programme of the federal government was held simultaneously in 74 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB-approved centres across the federation.
The examination is intended to help states find teachers for rural schools.
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Dr Hamid Boboye, while monitoring the conduct of examination in Abuja, explained that the programme was to ensure teachers get adequate required training before their deployment.
According to him, only 3700 candidates, consisting of 100 from each state would be selected based on state cut off marks for the programme.
“The budget provided for just 100persons per states, so we feel they deserve to be absorbed into the state,” he said,adding that Nigeria needed more teachers to attend to the over 42 million pupils in Nigerian basic schools.
Hear him: “As far as public schools are concerned, we have a problem in terms of numbers that can adequately meet the population that we have, with about 1.4million teachers in the system, we need more teachers to cater for the over 42million pupils we have”
He tasked states governments to engage the FTS teachers, saying UBEC has expended resources in making sure they are trained within their immediate environments.
“Some states refuse to absorb such teachers and as such we urge them to do so, as an internship scheme, what happens latter depends on the state where they serve”
“After verification exercise, UBEC will then ascertain the authenticity of their certificate before training commences for them,” he said.
No fewer than 350 thousand applicants applied for the Federal Teachers’ Scheme across the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
Recall that the commission started conducting the examination in 2016.