Comrade Adedeji Adekunle Babatunde, the Oyo State chairman of Association of Primary School Head Teachers of Nigeria (AOPSHON) has appealed to the Engineer Seyi Makinde-led government in the state to recruit more primary school teachers through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
He further stated that government should formulate a working policy to ensure that graduates in the field of education are deployed to the classroom to teach in order to enhance the quality of teaching in the state.
He said, “Presently, we have 2467 public primary schools across the state with about 14,000 staff. As at 2017, the population of Oyo State public primary school was over 27,000 students but now we have over 55, 000 as a result of the free primary educational policy of the present government.
Continuing, he said “upon my assumption in office, we had 22,720 staff members but now we are around 14,000. There is a shortfall in the present staff members of primary school across the state due to transfer, retirement and deaths.
“The staff strength is reducing; government should deploy fresh graduates from the Colleges of Education and collaborate with National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) to post members who studied education in order to address the shortfall”.
He made these submissions while featuring on a weekly radio show, Parrot Xtra/Ayekooto on Radio’ anchored by Olayinka Agboola and broadcast live on Splash 105.5FM, Felele Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State on Tuesday.
Comrade Adekunle further appreciated the Engr. Seyi Makinde-led administration for its commitment to the overall development of the educational sector of the state and the recently conducted promotion exercise for its primary school teachers.
He further stated that the recent promotion exercise in which 9227 teachers were given promotion letters came as a big relief to primary school teachers in the state while appreciating NUT, AOPSHON for their concerted efforts in ensuring that the promotion exercise was devoid of malpractices.
He said, “The government is fulfilling its promises in the prompt payment of teachers’ salaries in the state, provision of infrastructural facilities and training of teachers for effective delivery.
“Furthermore, I want to appreciate the Nigeria Union of Teachers for coordinating the promotion procedures. It was not an easy task to coordinate such promotion exercise. We commend SUBEB through Dr Nureni Aderemi Adeniran, the chairman and the state government for fulfilling promises. There are procedures that were put in place to eliminate sharp malpractices and no individual can forge the promotion letters because of the security measures attached to it”.
The Oyo AOPSHON chair further stated that he has no regret being a teacher stating that the passion and desire to influence lives positively endeared him to the teaching profession.
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