By Yinka Adeniran, Ibadan
Thousands of applicants on Tuesday stormed the Agodi headquarters office of the Oyo State Teaching Service Commission with many stranded for hours to get free job application forms.
As early as 6:30am, applicants from within and outside the state bieseged the office following the decision of the government to strengthen the workforce and improve the educational sector in the state.
The government had rolled out the application offer to recruit 7,000 teachers, 2,000 non teaching staffs and 1,600 security guards for schools across the state.
While many of the applicants were stranded as a result of their failure to present the required documents, many remained on queue for hours as a result of overwhelming and massive large turn out of prospective workers for the officials to handle.
The intervention of the Executive chairman of TESCOM, Mr Akinade Alamu, who addressed the teeming applicants around 9am brought some form of sanity into the situation.
Despite the plea of the chairman to the applicants that they can also get the form from other locations across the state, the Headquarters office remained locked down with crowd with many people still storming the office.
Addressing a reporters on the development, Alamu said although the Commission had initially fixed a N1,000 charge for the collection of the job application form it was cancelled by Governor Seyi Makinde to encourage more people qualified people to apply.
Flanked by Governor Seyi Makinde’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Taiwo Adisa and Special Adviser (Media), Mr Jide Ajani, the TESCOM boss said: “We received approval from Governor Seyi Makinde that to recruit 7,000 teachers, 2000 non teaching staffs and 1,600 night guards for all the schools in Oyo state.
“Immediately we started the exercise, we went to the press to make the advertisement, but as soon as the Governor learnt that we are suppose to charge N1,000 from each applicant, he gave the directive that the form should be given free to all applicant all over Oyo state.
“And in his usual compassionate attitude, he said he wouldn’t want people coming from far distant areas of the state to come and pay to the bank, wait for confirmation from the Accountant General before they come to take the form as it was initially planned.
“The governor said he wouldn’t want people to undergo the rigorous but that the form should be given to the applicants free of charge and we have started that this morning.
“He also directed that the forms be given to all the six zones in Oyo state and the head office is the seventh centre where the forms will be given to the applicant. Our offices are located in Saki, Eruwa, Oyo, Ogbomosho, Ibadan zone 1 and 2.
“The form is free and nobody should collect any money from any applicant. What we however want to serve as small control is for people to come with their local government identification to collect the form free.
“Because we expect that there will be so many applicants and we will not be able to fix them for interview, so there will be a CBT test to prune down the number and all those that are qualified will be invited for interviews after the examination and they will resume work soon.”
He added that the job offer is also open to non indigenes of Oyo state, saying “As for the non indigenes, we don’t discriminate in Oyo state. But, at the same time, we should have a system whereby we will ensure that what we are doing is the proper thing.
“We cannot just throw this open for people to come and take forms without showing us some evidences. We have to have the identity of the person taking the form as to whether you can bring your local government of origin, even if you are not an indigene of Oyo state.
“We won’t say no because you are not from Oyo state, bring it, it is the result of the written test that will confirm and tell us those that are qualified to take the appointment or not. So, we are not discriminating at all but we are using something as a control so that it won’t be open to people who are not qualify.
“But, some people in anxiety have gone to the bank to pay without getting clarification from us, I don’t think we will accept responsibility. Some people have since yesterday started going to the bank to pay. Some people have been bringing payment tellers to us when we haven’t asked them to go and pay. The exercise started today and some people have even been paying before the commencement of the exercise, we know nothing about that.”
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