Teachers of Primary and Secondary Schools in Ekiti State who has been resisting postings to rural areas, has been urged to tender their resignation.
The chairman, Ekiti state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Prof. Femi Akinwumi made this known yesterday in Ikogosi Ekiti west L.G.A, while flagging off a five day training for primary schools Quality Assurance Officers .
Prof. Akinwumi frowned at the constant resistance from teachers who are posted to villages. He lamented that schools in the rural areas have been marginalized by the teacher’s act, adding that the board would undertake redistribution policy to correct the imbalance.
“We don’t have teachers in local areas while they are in surplus in our cities, particularly Ado Ekiti. This lopsidedness is a major problem, and we have to embark on teachers’ redistribution. If we don’t use a radical approach, we won’t do well.
“We have teachers who are sufficient in primary schools, but the question is have those teachers in the villages committed crime?
“The new policy now is either they honour the postings or they tender their resignation. Some believe they can influence it, but in this exercise, we are going to transfer those who thought they are untouchable to different areas.”
Speaking on the essence of the training, Akinwumi said productivity and efficiency are necessary ingredients for schools to perform. He added that quality assurance is required to enhance quality teaching, and for good performances by pupils in external examinations.
“Ekiti has the best teachers-pupils ratio in Nigeria, which is one to 28. It is even one to 14 in our rural schools. With this, we have no reason why we should not have the best results in public examinations.
“Before Governor Fayemi came on board, counterpart funding was not paid, salary and pension were not paid, promotion was not regular, and training and retraining of staff stopped for four years, which caused poor performances of pupils. But today, the governor has paid arrears of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and partly 2021 promotions,” he said.