By Miracle Ogunde
The Nasarawa State Government has uncovered uncovered 2,277 illegally employed teachers by the state’s Teachers Service Commission.
An investigative committee recently set up by government to look into matters relating to recruitment across schools in the 13 Local Government Areas of the state made the recovery.
According to Punch, the discovery follows several rumours of recruitment scandals in the commission and the state government’s suspension of the officials of the TSC to allow for a smooth investigation into their dealings.
Receiving the report of the investigative committee on Thursday at the Government House, Lafia, the State Governor, Abdullahi Sule said the suspended TSC officials had not been fair to the state because they went overboard to recruit 3,277 teachers instead of the 1,000 as approved by his administration.
Governor Sule further threatened to hand over the suspended officials of the Nasarawa State Teachers’ Service Commission to the security agencies over the alleged extortion of money from applicants for employment, lamenting that the poor citizens had to make payments in exchange for appointment letters.
“These people, we would report them to the security agencies because this is beyond administration. The aspect of them collecting money from people, I don’t even have the power to handle that.
“The security agencies should be involved to see how these innocent children should get back their money.
“How do we accommodate 3, 277 teachers today in Nasarawa State? Where are you going to get the money to pay them? Where are you posting them? That is not even the biggest worry. The biggest worry is that the entire exercise was not done on merit, which means we have engaged people who are not qualified to be posted as teachers,” he pointed out.
He expressed further concern that the efforts of his administration to improve the standards of education in the state may be jeopardised through unethical conduct, as demonstrated by the recent employment of teachers.
“As you all know, Nasarawa State had been just like so many other Northern states. When you come to the standard of education in Nigeria, when they are listing states that are backward in education, Nasarawa State is among them. It is a little bit better today. But with this kind of thing, we are not far away from where we used to be,” he added.
On the fate of the 2, 277 teachers recruited without approval, Sule appealed to the people of the state to understand that it is the future of the children of the state that is at stake, not political considerations.
“This exercise is a complete destruction. If we employ 3,000 teachers, there is no way any school in the rural areas would have only two or three teachers. We employ people because of vacancies that exist. You can’t go employing teachers without knowing where to post them,” he said.
He also showed concern on the qualifications of the 1,000 teachers officially recruited, adding that his administration may consider conducting a fresh selection process for the entire 3,277 recruited teachers in order to be able to employ the 1,000 most qualified teachers from them.
“The most important thing is not about politics but about the education of our own children. This is beyond politics. We are not going to build a society until we have a society of people who are educated. We can not have a society of educated people unless we have the right teachers,” he stated.
Commenting on one of the recommendations of the committee seeking for the government to pay all the illegal teachers employed and posted to schools, the governor assured that his administration will pay all those recruited and posted outside the official 1,000 and thereafter terminate their appointments.
“I assure you that all those who have been posted to schools, we would pay them. But we would not keep them. There is no way to keep them. If you posted 200 or 300 teachers to a school that requires only 40 teachers, you are really not helping the state. I’m worried more about that than the fact that they are not qualified. They are not even qualified to be teachers,” he stated.
The Sule expressed appreciation to the chairman and members of the investigative committee for their dedication, commitment, expertise, and the amount of time they had put into the assignment.
Earlier, while presenting the report before the governor, the Chairman of the investigative committee, Silas Dachor, said the committee discovered that the TSC willfully disobeyed the governor’s instruction to recruit only 1,000 teachers.
The Chairman added that the TSC went ahead to recruit 3, 277 teachers without necessary approval from him.
“Indeed, there are hundreds of others in possession of appointment letters who are yet to be posted. This, to say the least, amounts to gross insubordination to His Excellency and a great disservice to the government and people of Nasarawa State.
“Furthermore, the committee found out that the recruitment did not in any way reflect the needs of the school system. Contrary to the rationale of the exercise, which was to fill existing vacancies.
“We also found out that the exercise did not show a fair spread across local government areas, and worst still, there was no evidence that the recruitment was based on merit. But merely selective, thus edging out other potential candidates,” he said.
Dachor added that the recruitment exercise was more or less reduced to a racketeering venture, where desperate and unsuspecting applicants scramble for employment on cash and carry basis for the highest bidder.
“In relation to this, a bank account was provided for interested applicants who were directed to pay in amounts ranging from N500,000 to N700,000 for what was termed appreciation to facilitate the issuance of appointment letter,” he said.
Dachor described the recruitment exercise conducted by the suspended NSTSC officials as one characterised by inconsistent documentation, harp hazard and abnormal procedures, and unethical practices, thereby raising serious concerns about transparency, accountability, credibility and fairness.
While submitting the 25-page report, Dachor called on the state government to accept the observations and recommendations made by his committee with a view to restoring sanity in the school system through the crucial steps it had taken to get teachers recruitment right.
He further thanked Gov Sule for finding members of the committee worthy of the assignment.
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