UZODIMMA AND NEWLY RECRUITED TEACHERS

The public schools are barely hanging on, argues

 IFEANYI MADUAKO

The last time I checked, Imo State public schools, especially those in the basic and secondary levels were grossly ill-equipped with qualified teachers.

The foundation of sound and meaningful education is at the basic level, and any government that neglects the basic level usually fails at both the secondary and tertiary levels.

Sometime in May, 2023, the government of Imo State advertised for employment of teachers primarily for the basic level. Over 50,000 applicants of Imo State origin applied from all over the country.

Since the announcement was done in May last year which was the last term of the 2022/2023 yearly academic session, the applicants had expected that the successful ones among them would be recruited and deployed to their various schools at the beginning of 2023/2024 academic session which started in September.

This writer was reliably informed that the recruitment of the successful 5000 applicants has long been concluded since September last year with the belief or hope that they would begin in the first term. However, the management of the Imo State Universal Basic Education Board seems to be waiting on the governor for his approval to post out these applicants to the various schools, especially those in the hinterlands that need their services.

One does not know why the governor seems to be prevaricating on the issue of equipping the public schools in the state. The governor, I must admit, has done relatively well in terms of project execution in the last four years more than his predecessors who were in office for eight years but regrettably couldn’t execute even half of the laudable projects Governor Uzodimma has executed in four years.

For instance, the Owerri- Orlu and the Owerri- Okigwe dual carriage high ways are some of the legacy projects of Governor Uzodimma. These roads were commuters nightmares for decades even when Orlu zone produced two previous governors who were in office for eight years each. The lame argument about Uzodimma constructing the roads with a view to getting reimbursement from the federal government under the regime of President Buhari is the height of idiocy. Why didn’t his predecessors, particularly the last one from Orlu zone who always claims to be more northerner than any other Igbo man construct the roads and got reimbursed?

Lest I digress. The nonchalant attitude of successive governments towards the fortification of the state’s basic and secondary Schools has led to the proliferation of quack and substandard private schools in the state.

If the governor prevaricated or dilly-dallied in the recruitment of the new teachers so that the so-called 50,000 applicants could vote for him in the last November governorship election, what is he still waiting for to deploy the successful ones who were painstakingly recruited since he had won the election? Was the recruitment which saw unemployed Imo citizens coming home from all over the country a facade or election propaganda or gimmick just to win the election?

If the governor is truly committed to revamping the dilapidated education sector in the state, his second term which begins on January 15,2024, should give him the ample opportunity to put that into practice. The state government should deploy these newly recruited teachers to their various schools to give impetus and life to public schools gasping for breath.

The government should demonstrate leadership and sincerity of purpose by inputting these fresh teachers into the state government’s payroll without delay in such a manner that they would have been in the system for four years by the end of the tenure of present government. This would make it almost impossible for his successor to sack or disengage them. This odious practice of outgoing governors suffusing or suffocating the state government’s wage bill by employing new staff few days, weeks or months to the end of their tenure should stop in the state. Governor Rochas Okorocha sacked 10,000 workers employed by his predecessor on the flimsy excuse that they were employed few months to the end of his tenure. The self-same Okorocha committed the same act , and his successor, Emeka Ihedioha, wielded the big stick and flushed them out which showed that Okorocha was not altruistic in the hurried recruitments.

Governor Uzodimma should show leadership and altruism by departing from this insidious lane. Let him bear the brunt or burden of shouldering the wage bill of these new 5000 teachers for the next four years even if it means reducing the  capital expenditure of the next four fiscal budgets to accommodate the recurrent expenditure which will arise from these new employments. Human capital development which basic education typifies should take precedence over capital development.

Lastly, the current government of Anambra State had last year employed thousands of teachers since Governor Soludo became the governor in March 2022. If Soludo could employ thousands of teachers in less than two years in office, Uzodimma has no plausible reasons to keep his newly recruited teachers in the doldrums since last year knowing full well that he has not done any new employment in the last four years.

Maduako writes from Owerri via ifeanyimaduako2017@gmail.com