More than 4,500 newly recruited primary school teachers in Nigeria’s northern state of Kaduna have been sacked for “incompetence”.

Lawal Danjuma, an aide to the state commissioner of education, told BBC Pidgin:

There is no place for teachers who don’t know how to write simple acceptance letters in our primary schools, sacking them is best for children’s education."

Kaduna state has just recruited 15,897 teachers after sacking about 22,000 others last year for failing a test set for their six-year-old pupils.

He said the names of those who have just been fired must have been smuggled in during the recruitment process.