The Edo State Government on Tuesday said it had invited 1,300 primary schoolteachers with certificate irregularities and age records to appear before a verification committee to defend themselves.

The state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, made this known in a meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Nigeria Union of Teachers in the state.

In a statement obtained by our correspondent, the governor said an audit carried out by the state Information and Communications Technology unit showed that 789 teachers of the 1,379 obtained their Primary School Leaving Certificates before they were eight years old.

The governor, who explained that the exercise was not a witch-hunt however said those who have become too old to teach would leave the service.

He said, “It is not my wish to preside over dismissals, first it is not cheap. Secondly, I have a responsibility to keep Edo going and ensure that our children are in the good hands of teachers, who are still strong to stand and are competent to teach.

“If the facts reveal that there are teachers in the classroom, who do not have the requisite qualification, you cannot insist that they remain in the system. The good news is that those, who are not too old, who are capable of training, if we find that they are deficient and it is possible for them to benefit from training, we will give them training. What is not acceptable is to say it is business as usual.

“We can mismanage everything in our country, if you mismanage education; you are killing our tomorrow, our collective future. The roads we are building, we will not have brains to look over them. In the absence of brains, we will not have growth and development.”