Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has approved the release of appointment letters to 1,000 Ogun Teaching Experience Acquisition Channel (OgunTEACh) beneficiaries. This development comes 12 years after teachers were last employed in the state.
Abiodun had promised to absorb the OgunTEACh interns into permanent appointments in his address during the World Teachers’ Day celebration on October 5.
At the same event, he also announced the employment of 2,000 interns and the 2,000 already employed, making a total of 5,000 teachers.
Speaking during the presentation of letters to the newly recruited teachers, Governor Abiodun noted that successful applicants were chosen based on their resilience, diligence, commitment, and doggedness during the period of their internship.
The governor was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, who said that this giant step was part of the present administration’s effort to improve the standards of education in the state.
He hinted that the employment aimed to ensure that adequate and enough teachers were injected into the system, while reducing overloading on already existing teachers. It will also ensure the replacement of those who have retired and others who had left the country.
He congratulated the newly employed teachers, charging them to continue maintaining integrity, diligence, and commitment by putting in their best to take teaching and learning to a higher pedestal.
Arigbabu said, “Our governor meant well when he declared an emergency in the education sector. Part of his concern was how to ensure better welfare for teachers, including prompt payment of salaries, creating a well-conducive teaching and learning environment, and injecting enough teachers into the school system to jack up the standard.”
Speaking at the event, Chairman of the Ogun State Teaching Service Commission, Evang. Olalekan Ifede, disclosed that 600 out of the newly recruited teachers have been posted to public Junior and Senior Secondary Schools across the state. He added that the new personnel would go a long way in improving the standard of education in the state.
The Chairman of the Ogun State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, also said that 300 new teachers have been posted to public primary schools to reinforce teaching in the sub-sector.
The Executive Secretary of the Ogun State Technical Education Board, Mr. Olubori Akinleye, who also spoke at the ceremony, stated that the recruitment of the new teachers was apt, coming at a time the government was planning to reposition technical education in the state.