Council allegedly sues A’Ibom govt over non-recruitment of indigenes into teaching jobs

Ini Billie, Uyo

Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State has reportedly sued the Akwa Ibom State Government for the non-recruitment of many of its indigenes into teaching jobs in the public secondary schools.

The chairman of Akwa Ibom State Secondary Education Board (SSEB), Dr Ekaette Okon, said on Monday in Uyo during an interview that Ibeno LGA has instituted a legal case against the state government for recruiting only six of its indigenes out of over 278 persons who applied for the teaching job.

Okon, who added that it was worrisome that Ijaw Youth Council had joined in the suit, decried the notion that some local government areas felt short-changed as they claimed many of their indigenes were not shortlisted for appointment into the state teaching service.

The chairman who explained that the quota system was not the basis of the recent recruitment of teachers into the secondary schools, added that the quality of teachers was the criteria used as the recruitment was not meant to fill quotas from the 31 local government areas but to ensure quality education in the state.

She emphasized that the exercise based its selection process on the stipulated criteria to engage qualified teachers rather than ensure equal representation of the local government areas in the selection.

She said: “For the recruitment of 1,000 teachers, we followed the guidelines as given by the governor.  The Governor was not looking for local government quota to fill or slots for anybody, but he was looking for quality and qualified teachers who can help the school system in the completion Agenda in Education sector.”

Presenting the statistics of the exercise from some council areas, Okon said Abak had 1,956, Eastern Obolo 52, Eket 1,715, Esit Eket 621, Essien Udim 2511, Etim Ekpo 1,474, Etinan 1938, Ibeno 278, Ibesikpo 1,835, Ibiono Ibom 2,270, while Uyo LGA had 4,867 applicants, among others.

According to her, the government had to ignore some protocols to address the state of emergency declared in the education sector by Governor Udom Emmanuel which involved addressing the infrastructure deficit and recruiting more hands in public schools to achieve the complete agenda of the government in the sector.

“And by my own understanding, when there is an emergency, you don’t follow normal protocols. Some protocols must be broken so that you can achieve what you want.

“The same thing happened last year 2020 with COVID-19 pandemic. The government had to divert funds from other sectors to Health because that was the immediate priority.

“But soon after that, a lot of people were out of school and government saw the need that we should consolidate and improve on educational givings and takings.

“On 25 November 2020, after the Board had undertaken a tour of all the secondary schools in the state, I raised a memo to His Excellency on the state of secondary schools in the state and I was invited to the State Executive Council to present same, where I asked for employment of teachers in the state public secondary schools among other requests.

“The Governor immediately constituted a six-man Recruitment Committee headed by the Head of Service in the state. He said the advert was placed in the state-owned newspaper for recruitment of 1,000 teachers but 47,102 applicants successfully applied online at the time the portal was closed.

“Over 47,102 candidates applied for the job across the different spectrum of interests. We have citizens from Anambra, Abia, Borno, Delta, Oyo, and Rivers states, respectively.

“After deleting the non-indigenes, multiple entries and other errors, the number was reduced to 45,285 applicants, while applicants with third class and pass grades of degrees were also eliminated.

“First class of first degrees were 201, Second class upper division was 9041, second class lower division were 25,662. Master’s degree holders were 27, HND distinction 401, while those with lower credits were completely knocked off.

“There are complaints that those with first-class degrees were not successful. Yes! For instance, you can’t study Communication Arts and want to teach the English Language when there are graduates of English Language. They are not interrelated according to technocrats who handled the interview,” she stated.

Okon further explained that the results were finally presented to the governor who signed the list page by page and sent it back to the Head of Service who in turn handed over to the Board for letters of appointment to be issued to successful applicants.

The chairman mentioned that deployment of those with teaching experience was a different matter entirely and was not part of the recent recruitment exercise as was wrongly speculated.

“Therefore, the total number recruited teachers is 1,098 while the additional 98 was strictly on agriculture.

“As I’m talking to you, there is nobody in the Ministry of Education that went underground to employ anybody just to short-change other people. The 1,000 employed have taken exams applied online, shortlisted for an interview before the appointment and we have statistics to show,” she said.

Collaborating the claim, the Head of Civil Service, Elder Effiong Essien confirmed that some personnel were deployed to teach in secondary schools but were not among the 1,000 teachers recently recruited.

He described the deployment as mobility of labour which according to him has become one of the procedures in the civil service.

She added: “There is room for the mobility of labour from one department to the other in line with civil service rule.”

He however denied that some staff members have been purposely redeployed to the state secondary education board as part of the recent recruitment exercise.