Stop lobbying community leaders to influence transfer, teachers in Delta told

The chairman of the Delta State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr Sunny Ogwu, has warned head teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff against lobbying community leaders to influence their postings and transfers, saying that such practice would no longer be tolerated by the board.

He gave the warning at Oleh Area, headquarters of Isoko South Local Government, during the continuation of the board’s town hall meetings with head teachers in public primary schools.

Represented by the member representing Delta South senatorial district on the board, Mr Paul Kurugbe, the SUBEB boss expressed displeasure with the practice whereby some workers mobilise community leaders to mount undue pressure on local education secretaries to influence their transfers, saying that such habits, including rejecting postings, were inimical to the service.

He charged head teachers, particularly those heading schools at the various villages, to embark on school drive by encouraging parents to enroll their wards in school and take advantage of the free education programme of the  Ifeanyi Okowa administration.

He assured the head teachers of the state government’s strong commitment to promoting quality basic education, and enjoined them to engage community leaders and the parent-teacher association to assist in protecting school properties against vandalism.

On the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) model adopted by the Universal Basic Education Commission in conjunction with the State Universal Basic Education Board to run and manage some schools in the state, Ogwu urged head teachers and management committees of benefitting schools to use the money released to them for execution of projects judiciously.

“To enhance the capacity of teachers to meet up with modern trend of impacting knowledge, the board has concluded plans to begin another batch of cluster trainings for teachers,” he said, imploring participants to take the training seriously.

He also warned against the collection of illegal fees, extortion and unprofessional conducts, and urged head teachers to teach morals and values on assembly grounds and be good examples to staff and pupils.