By Emmanuel Onyedika
At least 10,000 applicants have applied for 1,000 primary school teaching positions approved by the Nasarawa State Government under a specialised rural recruitment scheme aimed at strengthening basic education.
This was disclosed on Monday by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Affairs, Peter Ahemba, who represented Governor Abdullahi Sule during a bi-monthly press briefing at the NUJ State Council Secretariat, Lafia.
Ahemba explained that the recruitment exercise, conducted by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), was designed to address manpower shortages in rural schools. He stressed that all successful candidates will be posted strictly to rural communities.
He added that the government engaged an independent consulting firm to handle the recruitment process in order to ensure fairness and credibility, bypassing standard internal procedures.
According to him, while the exercise recorded a massive turnout, the pass rate was very low. He assured that the process would remain transparent and merit-based, noting that the rural posting policy was aimed at bridging the teacher gap in hard-to-reach areas across the state.
The government urged applicants to await further communication from SUBEB and the consulting firm on the next phase of the recruitment exercise.