VOICE AIR MEDIA News Update
THE Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), State of Osun chapter, has raised the alarm over what it described as shortage of teachers in public schools across the state.
According to the NUT, there is acute shortage of teachers in the public schools, noting that there is no school in all the local governments across the state that does not need teachers.
Chairman of the NUT in the State of Osun, Comrade Muritala Fatade, in an interview on Thursday, said the worst hit are schools in the rural areas of the state.
Fatade lamented that the dearth of teachers in public schools is worse in the schools that are in remote areas in every part of the state.
The NUT boss said some secondary schools in Osun have five-to-eight employed teachers to service the whole school, urging the state government to as a matter of urgency, recruit more teachers.
Fatade also appealed to the government to reinstate those who went through the proper process among the 1,500 teachers recruited by the previous administration and sacked by Governor Ademola Adeleke.
He said even with the reinstatement of some of the sacked teachers, the government still has a lot of vacuum to fill in providing adequate teachers for the state-owned schools.
The NUT Chairman added that the government’s intention to improve the standard of education in public schools cannot be achieved without adequate teachers in the schools.
He said: “We have an acute shortage of teachers in Osun State government schools as of today. The shortage is just too enormous to the extent that in rural areas, we have some schools where we have five, six and eight teachers in a whole secondary school.
“It is only the urban centre that is fairly okay but talk of the rural areas, the shortage is too much. We want to appeal to our Governor to please employ more teachers as a matter of urgency.
“I will like also to plead on behalf of the 1500 teachers that the last administration rushed their employment. For those who got the employment through due process, the government should please reinstate them.
“Even if they reinstate these people, we still need more teachers. What we have now is an acute shortage. The gap they need to fill is just too much. There is no school in all the local governments across the state that does not need teachers.
“The 1500 teachers cannot even fill the gap. They will have to immediately recruit more. We want the government of Osun to come to our aid.
“The government is talking about improving the standard of education, there is no way they can achieve this without having adequate teachers on the ground.”
On infrastructure, Fatade said some school buildings are dilapidated, adding that the schools are also lacking adequate teaching materials.
He said: “In the area of infrastructure, in terms of buildings, we are fairly okay but we still have some dilapidated buildings in our schools.
“Also, the teaching materials are not adequate. We are appealing to the state government to provide teaching materials in order to aid teaching and learning in our schools.”
Speaking on the effect of fuel subsidy removal on his members, the NUT Chairman said teachers were already feeling the heat.
He appealed to the state government to provide palliative that will assist in cushioning the effect.
According to him, “The subsidy removal on fuel is really affecting teachers in the state. Some teachers live in far area from their working place. Some of them even work in a different local government to where they reside.
“Even those living in the town are not exempted. A teacher that was spending N300 to his working place before is now spending about N800.
“We want to urge the government to provide a sort of succour and quickly give us palliatives in order to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal pending the time our salaries will be legally reviewed and increased.”
Echoing the view of the NUT boss, a teacher in a public school in Osogbo who preferred anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, said many unqualified teachers employed by Parent Teacher Association had been teaching in many public schools.
He said: “There are not enough teachers in rural and semi-urban areas. In the urban areas, it is relatively better. For instance, some schools in Osogbo have almost enough teachers. Schools like Ataoja School of Science, Baptist Girls School, and Fakunle Comprehensive High School, all have almost enough hands.”
On how schools have been coping with the situation, the teacher said, “I know of a school in Otan Ayegbaju where the teacher that is teaching Mathematics is a graduate of Accounting. He was good in Mathematics during his secondary school days, and because there was no teacher for the subject, he took up the challenge.
“There is also a teacher in Ikirun who studied Business Administration, and being asked to take Islamic Religious Studies. What is happening nowadays is that whoever has an idea of a subject will be in charge of subjects where there are no teachers now, not necessarily those who studied the subjects.”