The Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has said it would henceforth urge public primary school teachers who are refusing posting to rural areas to tender their resignation.
SUBEB lamented the lopsidedness created by how teachers have been resisting postings to villages, thereby concentrating them in the cities at the expense of rural schools, saying the board would undertake redistribution policy to correct the imbalance.
The SUBEB Chairman, Prof. Femi Akinwumi, stated this in Ikogosi, Ekiti West Local Government Area, yesterday while flagging off a five-day training programme for primary schools Quality Assurance Officers held at the Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort Centre.
The academic revealed that the standard of education has improved considerably in Governor Kayode Fayemi administration since 2018 compared to what was obtainable in the immediate-past government.
According to him, “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 about the crux of the training, Akinwumi said productivity and efficiency are necessary ingredients for schools to perform, adding 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 stated.
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