NO fewer than 21,000 applicants are jostling for 5,000 casual teachers’ slots under the ongoing recruitment organised by the Ogun State Government tagged Ogun State Teaching Experience Acquisition Channel (Ogun TEACh).

The government says it plans to employ 5,000 teachers who will work for the period of two years.

Our correspondent gathered that the state government had suspended the recruitment of 1,500 teachers earlier shortlisted for the State Universal Basic Education Board teaching job and later opted for the Ogun TEACh scheme.

The government’s decision sparked outrage as the shortlisted candidates protested and accused the government of cancelling the exercise and replaced it with a fresh process.

It was gathered that the state government started recruitment of 1,500 teachers in the last quarter of 2019.

The qualified applicants after series of tests were later shortlisted for interviews.

However, the COVID-19 outbreak which brought about the closure of schools for almost six months stalled the recruitment.

It was, however, gathered that 21,000 applicants applied for the new teaching scheme out of which 18,000 were shortlisted for the 5,000 slots available for employment.

But the state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, said the state had screened 18,000 candidates to fill the teaching vacancies in primary, secondary and technical colleges under the casual teaching programme.

Arigbabu said this while fielding questions from newsmen after monitoring the screening at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, on Tuesday.

He said, “This is the first based test. It allows candidates to sit for the Computer Based Test (CBT) after which those that successfully scale through will go through the second stage which is the oral interview.

“After the oral interview, we will pick the successful candidates that will be fit to teach in our schools.”