The fate of the no fewer than
800 teachers in Ogun State alleged to have engaged in irregularities,
particularly the possession of forged certificates to gain employment, will be
determined on Monday.
The submission of the final report
of the series of verification exercises carried out by the state government to
identify unqualified and unscrupulous teachers in its public schools will, on
that day, be made by CITC, a firm of consultants recruited to carry out the
exercise.
An alarming number of teachers had
been discovered to not only possess fake certificates but also engage in
various irregularities with which they were offered jobs in the public schools
throughout the 20 local government areas of the state.
The exercise, which the state
Commissioner for Education, Mr Segun Odubela, said was in line with the
government’s commitment to a “truly affordable qualitative education,” started
in September and is aimed at tackling what appears to be an age-old problem
that affects the future of an estimated 450,000 students in the state public
schools.
A total of 223 teachers failed to
show up for the screening, even as some hurriedly resigned.
Cases of 21 birth certificate
forgeries were also detected just as a case of a teacher who gave four
different dates of birth, including one that showed that he commenced
primary school four years before his birth were discovered.
Already, a total of 527 teachers had
been identified as having engaged in shady practices and officials at the State
Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) had said there were indications that
the figure would rise to about 800 by the time the consultants saddled with the
responsibility of identifying the number of qualified teachers in the public
schools submitted its report.
A source at SUBEB disclosed that “of
the 19, 146 teachers on the agency’s payroll, only 69 per cent have so far been
able to prove their eligibility to teach. The remaining 31 per cent could not
be confirmed. Those in the latter category had presented statements of result
and/or letters of attestation, some of which were clear forgeries.”
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