October 25, (THEWILL) – Akwa Ibom government has said that the recent recruitment of teachers into public secondary schools was not meant to fill quotas from the 31 local government areas but to ensure quality education in the state.
Speaking with journalists in her office in Uyo, the state capital , the Chairman Akwa Ibom State Secondary Education Board ( SSEB) Dr Ekaette Ebong Okon said the exercise was to engage qualified teachers based on stipulated criteria.
“For the recruitment of 1000 teachers , we followed the guidelines as given by the governor. The Governor was not looking for local government quota to fill or slots for anybody but he was looking for quality and qualified teachers who can help the school system in the completion Agenda in Education sector, ” she said.
According to her, it was unfortunate that some local government areas felt shortchanged since according to them, many of their indigenes were not shortlisted for the job.
She disclosed that Ibeno local government has sued the state government for recruiting only six of it’s indigenes out of over 278 applicants for the teaching job adding that it was worrisome that Ijaw Youth Council had joined in the suit.
Presenting the statistics of the exercise from some council areas, she said Abak had 1956, Eastern Obolo 52, Eket 1,715, Esit Eket 621, Essien Udim 2511 and Etim Ekpo 1,474
Others were Etinan 1938, Ibeno 278, Ibesikpo 1835 Ibiono Ibom 2270 while Uyo local government had 4867 applicants among others
Okon recalled that Governor Udom Emmanuel had declared a state of Emergency in Education sector which involves addressing infrasturcture deficit and recruiting more hands in public schools to achieve completion agenda of government in education .
She said government had to ignore some protocols because it was an emergency so as to achieve it desired results.
” And by my own understanding, when there is emergency, you don’t follow normal protocols. Some protocols have to be broken so that you can achieve you want.
“The same thing happened last year 2020 with covid19 pandemic . Government had to divert funds from other sectors to Health because that was the immediate priority”
” But soon after that , a lot of people were out of school and government saw the need that we should consolidate and improve on educational givings and takings ”
” On 25 November 2020 after the Board had undertaken a tour of all the secondary schools in the state , I raised a Memo to His Excellency on the state of secondary schools in the state and I was invited to the State Executive Council to present same where I asked for employment of teachers in the state public secondary schools among other requests ” .
” The Governor immediately constituted a six man Recruitment Committee headed by the Head of Service in the state ”
She said advert was placed in the state owned newspaper: The Pioneer, for recruitment of 1000 teachers but 47,102 applicants successfully applied online at the time the portal was closed .
” Over 47,102 candidates applied for the job across different spectrum of interests . we have citizens from Anambra , Abia, Borno , Delta , Oyo and Rivers states respectively. ”
” After deleting the non indigenes , multiple entries and other errors the number was reduced to 45,285 applicants while applicants with third class and pass grades of degrees were also eliminated .”
” First class of first degrees were 201 , Second class Upper Division was 9041 , second class Lower Division were 25,662,Masters degree holders were 27 , HND distinction 401 while those with Lower credits were completely knocked off ”
She said the Computer Based Test ensured on-the-spot result except for those who played pranks never got their results on the spot .
” There are complaints that those with first class degrees were not successful . Yes ! For instance , you can’t study Communication Arts and want to teach English Language when there are graduates of English Language .They are not inter related according to Technocrats who handled the interview. ”
According to her, the results were finally presented to the governor who signed the list page by page and sent it back the Head of Service who in turn handed over to the Board for letters of appointment to be issued to successful applicants.
Okon explained that deployment of those with teaching experience was a different matter entirely and was not part of the recent recruitment exercise as was wrongly speculated .
” Therefore the total number recruited teachers is 1098 while the additional 98 was strictly on Agriculture. ”
” As I’m talking to you , there is nobody in the Ministry of Education that went underground to employ anybody just to shortchange other people. The 1000 employed have taken exams applied online , shortlisted for interview before appointment and we statistics to show. she said
Corrobating the Head of Service Elder Effiong Essien confirmed that some personnel were deployed to teach in secondary schools but were not among the 1000 teachers recruited recently.
He described such deployment as mobility of labour which according to him has become one of the procedures in the civil service .
” There is room for mobility of labour from one department to the other in line with civil service rule” she explained.
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