As Ogun recruits new teachers…

IT is usual to serenade teachers in this country, saying that they are the bedrock of education, the core builders of our nation, the guardians of our youth, and the best gifts of creation, and such other rhetoric. But the key question remains whether teachers, at one time so revered in this country that only clergymen were ranked higher than them, are being given the respect, love and care they so richly deserve; in short, whether they are being treated right. The answer, if experience since the return to civil rule in 1999 is anything to go by, is a categorical No. But that’s not where the tragedy lies: the real tragedy is that in most states, teachers are not just being maltreated, they are not even being treated as human beings in the first place. In this country, a state governor actually owed teachers over 24 months’ salaries.

Yet as the educationist, Carol Tomlinson, says great leaders unambiguously understand that the work of building student lives happens at the hands of teachers, and that much of the leader’s work must focus on supporting teacher success. These great leaders, she avers, “learn about the teachers as human beings—in the classroom and beyond. They seek teacher input and advice. They listen. They prove themselves to be worthy of a teacher’s trust, time and time again. They pay attention to teaching, not for purposes of judgment, but to learn from teachers and students. They provide multiple forms of support to help each teacher grow as a person and as a practitioner of and contributor to education.”

And it is to those “multiple forms of support” that we now wish to pay attention as we ponder what has been going on in Ogun State since May 29, 2019 when Dapo Abiodun, the fifth democratically elected governor of Nigeria’s Gateway State, assumed office. No sooner had the Iperu-born prince assumed office than he abolished the educational levy instituted by his predecessor, thus returning thousands of children from economically deprived homes back to school, cleared the backlog of teachers’ promotion, started building model schools in all the wards in the state, and emplaced great incentives to motivate teachers at all levels of the educational system.

Only last week, the Abiodun government commenced the distribution of appointment letters to 5,000 teachers employed through the Ogun Teach Scheme. The exercise being supervised by the chairman of Ogun State Teaching Commission (TESCOM), Olalekan Ifede, followed Governor Abiodun’s promise during the celebrations marking the 2021 World Teachers’ Day that the teachers would soon be given their letters of appointment. The introduction of the Ogun Teach Intervention to employ 5,000 interns is to fill teacher vacancies in primary, secondary and technical colleges in the state. According to the governor, the move is ultimately “to ensure the future is better than the present.” That’s a noble objective.

Among others, the Abiodun-led administration established the Ogun State Education Intervention Fund (OGSEIF) to achieve improved funding for the educational sector of the state. It also allocated lands to members of the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) and the Association of Primary School Headteachers of Nigeria (AOPSHON) for the construction of their secretariats. The government is currently supplying new furniture to all primary and secondary schools in the state and rehabilitating over 956 classrooms. It has upgraded 42 secondary schools to flagship schools for better performance and commenced the Ogun Digitalised Multimedia Lesson Plan to equip teachers with the resources for effective delivery in line with global standards.

This accords with the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation on teacher development. As noted by the body: “the necessity of prioritising human resource development in educational systems cannot be overemphasised. Among the strategies for action that will contribute directly to an improvement of the quality of education is a sustained investment in the professional development of teachers and the improvement of their working and employment conditions. The status of teachers and the status of education are closely related.”

Having introduced the pre-shaded optical mark recognition (OMR) objective answer sheet for the conduct of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), a 50 per cent increase in feeding allowance for learners in special needs schools, full sponsorship of public school students to all academic competitions, the resuscitation and relocation of Ogun State Braille Book Production Centre which has been moribund for many years, as well as annual distribution of wheelchairs to the special needs learners, the Abiodun government can be seen to have taken the bulls by the horns in the education sector.

If anything, the approval of scholarships for outstanding students in all of the state’s tertiary institutions, the establishment of the Ogun State Education Intervention Fund (OGSEIF) to achieve improved funding, the appointment of Headmaster and Principal Generals are all parts of the educational revival in the state. As observed by the ILO, teachers can only be the catalysts for change in the movement against child labour if they are supported in the process of improving their work with children in the classroom. Thus, their credibility among parents and community members and the all-important trust in their concern for the welfare of children and the community is closely tied to their ability to provide the quality of education that parents seek for their children.

During the recent World Teachers’ Day celebrations in Ogun State, the governor rewarded the best teachers in the state, gifting a semi-detached bungalow to the best overall teacher for the year 2020. His rationale: the state must continue to attract bright-minded young teachers to the teaching profession. For a governor who gifted a two-bedroom bungalow and a sum of N2million to an indigene of the state who emerged as the overall best graduating student of the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos and set up an Endowment Fund with a seed money of N5million in honour  a student of the Ambassadors College, Ota, who emerged winner in the Global Open Mathematics Tournament, this came as no surprise. ANCOPSS, apprised of his giant strides in education, decorated him as the best education-friendly Governor in the South-West. The National Parents Teachers Association gave him the Best Governor in the Educational Sector award.

Successive governments paid lip service to getting quality professionals to man secondary schools in the state and this affected teaching negatively. But with Governor Abiodun’s recent initiative, the extant gaps will be bridged. All the teachers newly employed have a background in education: they have the professional competence to impart knowledge, armed with good degrees in their various disciplines. The move will definitely improve the quality of products coming out of the system and facilitate admission to higher schools. It is not for nothing that the governor is giving incentives to teachers: he wants them to be on top of their game.

The message is clear: there is reward for hard work in Ogun State and teachers do not have to wait till they get to heaven to receive them. Besides, the renovation of primary schools across wards shows that he values education and makes it a priority. According to one of the newly employed teachers: “I see this move as a step in the right direction. Previously, it was PTA teachers that handled core subjects in may schools. Now that we have been employed, parents can spend the money they normally contribute at the end of every month to pay us on other things. It’s an exciting moment for the state.”

.Bakare sent this piece through [email protected]

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