From Kenechukwu Obiajuru, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Government has assured that qualified applicants of the ongoing teachers’ recruitment exercise would be shortlisted for employment soon.
Government equally noted that it would ensure payment of salary arrears of successful applicants who had started working with the Bayelsa State Post Primary Schools Board before the exercise was suspended some few months ago..
Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo gave the assurance on Monday during a meeting with delegation of the aggrieved prospective teachers in Government House, Yenagoa.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara Atasi, urged the applicants to exercise patience, stating that government would soon shortlist all applicants that scaled through the screening process of the verification panel.
The Deputy Governor explained that the initial process of recruitment was fraught with a lot of irregularities which were at variance with the outcome of the needs assessment exercise that was earlier carried out in almost all the secondary schools across the 8 local government areas of the state.
Commenting on the planned protest, he noted that although protest is a fundamental constitutional right of every citizen, there is always the need for protesters not to infringe on the rights of others in the course of exercising theirs.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, who thanked the prospective teachers for their show of patriotism by going to schools to render services regardless of the suspension of the recruitment exercise, maintained that those of them who are qualified will resume before the end of next month.
His words: “We assure you that all those who deserved to be employed will be employed. Those who worked for 6 or 3 or even two months before the exercise was suspended, your salary arrears will be paid, that is what l can assure you
“The wheel of government grinds slowly but surely to achieve definite results. I understand your plight but you have to be patient. We did the needs assessment and came to the conclusion that we had a lot of irregularities that marred the process.
“We discovered issues such as, under-employment, over-aged teachers and nepotism. We needed to recruit 997 teachers to be employed from the 8 local government areas. But the recruitment process was marred by a lot of anomalies.
“They ended up employing more people into areas were we already have more teachers. Apart from that some of the applicants were not qualified. For instance somebody who wants to teach computer does not know what a keyboard or a CPU is.
“The Panel set up to interrogate the process discovered a lot of issues. So, the delay is as a result of cleaning up the process. But they have completed their job. So as soon as the Governor returns, we will get the approval and all of you who deserve employment will be employed.
“So you really have to be patient. In any case, you should know that the letter they gave to you is provisional. So you are under probation. You may be qualified in terms of competence. But what about your character?”
Earlier in his remarks, leader of the delegation, Mr Teki Ayebaene, had said the planned protest was a peaceful one intended to draw the attention of government to their plight.
He expressed concern over the long delay in the recruitment of teachers, which he noted involved about 800 applicants in 413 government-owned secondary schools across the state.
