Date: 2018-10-09

Teachers applaud planned recruitment in Kwara Primary and secondary school teachers in Kwara State have called on the state government to go ahead with implementation of its planned recruitment of 1,888 teachers, saying it would go a long way in helping in the development of education in the state. The Secretary of the state's wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Jamiu Idris, while speaking with newsmen on the World Teachers Day, noted that there was acute shortage of teachers in the state schools, insisting that the government's move would help in addressing the shortage. He said: "In Kwara State, we have problems in our schools. There is the dearth of teachers in the schools because many of the teachers, who either left the system due to retirement or for other jobs, are yet to be replaced since the government is not recruiting fresh teachers. Teachers are retiring every month and government is not replacing them. Where do we go from there? These are the issues. "We do not regard the plan as a political gimmick because the state government said it clearly that they planned to recruit about 1,888 teachers. We are waiting for the government to do that. If they do that it will boost our staff strength in schools. But, we want it to be done thoroughly and not as a political issue. Those, who are really qualified, should be offered the job and the process of recruitment should be transparent. It should not be a matter of political compensation this time around." Jamiu also called on the three tiers of government (local, state and federal) to pay more attention to education by providing equal opportunity and access to quality education for Nigerian children irrespective of the socio-economic and political status, saying that education is a right and national issue, and therefore should not be politicised. He added: "Proper funding and proper monitoring are required for effective teaching and learning in our schools. The theme of this year's celebration is "Right to Education." How do we give right of education to our children? This should be our priority and we should create equal opportunity for the children to have access to qualitative education." Again, quality education could only be guaranteed if we have quality teachers; having quality teachers is not what we can get in the market and easily. It is a process right from the period of recruitment, placement, training and retraining so that the education industry could be better moved forward." The union also canvassed the urgent need for the government to meet the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) budgetary requirement of at least 26 per cent of nation's fiscal budget to educational development, nothing that all hands should be on deck to achieve this in all levels of government