Tag: Edo

Erastus Ikhide, a journalist, highlights the efforts of Edo State  Governor Adams Oshiomhole in tackling basic education and the mounting opposition against a man bent on cleaning the Aegean’s stable.

In the last five years of or so, Governor Adams of Oshiomhole of Edo State has taken measured steps to raise the standard of education in the troubled sector. Most recently, the sacking of 936 primary school teachers for age falsification and incompetence.

Some of the affected teachers ought to have retired some 10 years ago at the maximum or five years ago at the minimum, but chose to stay back in the state’s service; thereby blocking their children’s and grandchildren’s employment into the state’s teaching service and stultifying the growth of educationin the state. There is, therefore, a lot to contend with if education givers like teachers at the formative stage are themselves embroiled in roughish conducts that spell doom for the future of education in Nigeria and the younger generation.

The second is that of a female teacher early last year who demonstrated sheer illiteracy. The incident forced Oshiomhole’s administration to embark on the overhauling of the comatose education system that was left to decay and derailed. It is the second incident of a teacher who could not read a sentence that give away the other fraud of age falsification.

The governor in 2012 had sent 41 zonal inspectors and chief inspectors of education and local government education officers packing over non-performance and negligence of duty. The decision was the outcome of a thorough performance audit carried out by the governor. The crises coincided with the demotion of the Vice Principal of New Era College, Mr. S. E. Akhabue, from Grade Level 15 to Grade Level 14 for being a perpetual latecomer. The time-book of the teachers, which the governor went through showed that the vice principal sometimes got to the office as late as 9:55a.m. The punishment didn’t go down well with political opponents who exploited the sentiments of some misguided labour leaders who made spirited efforts to revert their punishment.

Add to that was the teachers recruitment sagger embarked upon by the state in 2011, which was later discontinued due to massive money-for-employment scam by the officials of the State Universal Basic Education, SUBEB. Even though some of the teachers had worked for about two months, Oshiomhole’s paid them off and asked them to reapply; this time with thorough scrutiny. The governor didn’t stop at that. He dissolved the board and sacked all the officials who were remotely involved in the racket. This has rein in – to some extent – the corruptive tendencies of SUBEB officials and others in the ministry of education.

The lapses in the education inspectorate come to the open when the governor paid series of unscheduled visits to public schools across the state where he made mind-boggling discoveries bordering on teachers absenteeism or dereliction of duty.

Oshiomhole said: “It’s obvious from what I’ve seen today and from what you’ve told me that you’ve all breached your basic duties, which is to monitor schools and file basic reports, which among other things, should include reports on those present and absent so that government can take steps to assist those who want to work to remain and those who don’t want to work to go home.

“Edo State Government has lost millions of naira of taxpayers’ money because of your failure to do your duties. “You are guilty of negligence of duty. I believe that most times, you don’t even come to work. We do not need this set of zonal inspectors of education, chief inspectors of education and local government education inspectors.

“The days are gone when people don’t do their jobs. It’s shocking that you recognise that you are supposed to have written reports, yet you fail to do so.

“I am happy that parents and guardians are returning their children to public schools as a result of the massive investment we have made in the education sector, yet, you who are to ensure that teachers work do not do so.

Teachers, as it were, are the backbones of any nation because they are responsible for shaping and nurturing the leaders of tomorrow, if indeed such nation is ready to remedy and rescue the future from the present. They too have to be sufficiently equipped to undertake the task of knowing how and what to teach the pupils, coupled with moral value. They must be responsible to the pupils as much as the state must be responsible to them, with decent working condition, regular training and liveable wages, so that they wouldn’t have any reason to be distracted from their core duties.

But the people of Edo State and the country at large may not have be sufficiently taken aback on the parlous state of the nation’s educational system until the recent Oshiomhole-primary-teacher’s-drama.The incident offered the country a classic evidence of the collapse of the foundation of education in an astounding literacy drama. A female primary school teacher, who had taught for upward of 20-year was unable to read her age declaration affidavit. Even when the governor encouraged her by reading the text and asked her to repeat after him, she floundered. The drama lasted for a few minutes.

That absurd drama watched by Nigerians on television which has now become the butt on the internet is not relative to the state alone. It is a national crisis, which demands decisive response. The springboard of this serio-comic was the massive discovery of teachers’ age falsification in which some of them claimed to have obtained their primary school certificates between the ages of eight and nine.

“We found that of all our primary school teachers, only 1,287, representing nine per cent, out of 14,484 teachers, had proper and accurate records in our system,” says Oshiomhole.

The incident which attracted wide commentary – including some critical editorials – is most shameful, to say the least. It is a serious indictment on the teachers and the supervisory organs of our primary education system. As this was shown across the country and beyond through prints, electronic and instant or social media, the country’s image of a civilised world tumbled. It sends the wrong signals that we are less likely to meet the 2030 UNESCO target for equitable and qualitative education.

As demonstrated in the state, teachers’ credentials audit may have unfurled some of the worse cases, but what is most critical is how to redeem the system from its self-inflicted harm. An embarrassing and destructive issue such as this calls for a tough policy decision just as Oshiomhole is doing in the state. The good of the society, achieved through training of the mind – the essence of education – is in danger.

The belief is that Oshiomhole has demonstrated the political will needed to write majority of the wrongs in the state’s educational sector more than any other state in Nigeria; the same way he acted when he signed the death warrants of condemned criminals, becoming the first governor to do so since 1999.

So many states across the country are yet to checkmate the profiteering syndicates that rule the employment of teachers by the officials and Personnel of State Schools Management Boards. One of the ways to ensure that we do not get to this embarrassing state where teachers can’t read even their own document in the future is to subject teachers recruitment and employment process to external body for scrutiny who may not have applicants affinity to the political party in power. There is no way we can separate the teachers employment racketeering and the attendant disgrace like the one we just witnessed in the state from politicians who are notorious for bending the rules for political patronage.

What we are witnessing in the state and elsewhere in Nigeria is a clear departure from what we were used to in our early school years. The primary teachers’ scandal evokes the question of death of the Inspectorate Division in our education system. In the past, inspectors made unscheduled visits to schools to investigate teachers’ punctuality and performance in the classroom. We must necessarily return to the weekly or monthly monitoring of our public and private schools by tested and trusted inspectors who will not compromise the value and quality of the nation’s education no matter the financial inducement.

The Oshiomhole-female-teacher’s tragic episode in Edo calls for ethical rearmament: a total overhaul through national education policies that will reinvent the wheels of inductive education, qualitative mentorship and practical teaching of the kids.

The modest achievements Oshiomhole has made in the last five-year would remain a flash in the pan if there is no institutional sustainability.

On a sad note, it would be particularly grim for Edo people at the end of Oshiomhole’s tenure if the loafers with artful background presently positioning themselves after him made it to Osadebe’s Avenue, the seat of power.