Ondo Cancels Automatic Promotion Of Primary School Teachers.

Ondo Cancels Automatic Promotion Of Primary School Teachers.

 Babatope Okeowo

The Ondo State government has announced plans to introduce a performance bond for teachers of public primary schools where promotion from one grade level to another will be based on the academic performance of students.

Also, the government has promised stiffer penalties for teachers who abscond duties just as it promised

to improve on monitoring and supervision of academic activities in schools.

The Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Hon

Victor Olabimtan disclosed this during an interactive session with the Education Secretaries from the 18 Local Government Areas of the State at the Board Corporate Headquarters, Akure, the state capital at the weekend.

According to Olabimtan, the directives became necessary to enhance the better performance of pupils of public schools in the Common Entrance Examination into Public Secondary Schools in the State.

The SUBEB boss said the State Government was not happy with the level of performance of the pupils having provided an enabling environment for good performance

has decided to place the promotion of teachers on performance bond starting from next year.

His words “Consequently from the next year no teacher will be promoted to the next grade levels especially from 13 and above without empirical evidence that the wards under him or her performed very well in their examinations”

Olabimtan said the State Government cannot continue to pretend as if all is well with the system, lay by, and gloss over the current performance of pupils in Public Schools for a State in which education is its main industry.

Considering the State Government’s huge investment in the basic education sector through the construction and renovation of over 900 schools and the distribution of free instructional material to pupils, the government expects better delivery from teachers and performance from pupils in all examinations.

While admonishing the Education Secretaries and Head Teachers to live up to expectations, he said the State Government would not hesitate to deal with anybody, no matter how highly placed, trying to sabotage the established high-performance standard in Education the State is known for.

As a way of improving the performance of pupils at both internal and external examinations in all Public Schools in the State Olabimtan said that from next year there is not going to be automatic promotion for any teacher in our Public Primary Schools.

He said all promotions, especially from grade 13 and above would be subjected to performance evaluation by the Board and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology.

Olabimtan said that from the beginning of the new academic session, the Board is going to invigorate its monitoring and supervisory mechanism by paying unscheduled visits to all the schools in the State to ensure teachers are in classes doing what they were employed to do.

According to the former Speaker State House of Assembly, the present level of performance of pupils in Public Primary Schools can be attributed to lack of discipline, dedication, truancy, and non challant attitudes on the part of some teachers and monitoring the way it should be done by School administrators and Education Secretaries.

The Chairman warned teachers who are in the habit of absconding grin duties or engaging in selling and buying during school sessions to desist because anybody caught in the act will face the music.

According to him, there is credible information that some teachers come to school at will while others do not come at all but employ someone else to do their jobs while engaging in other activities at the detriment of students under their care, adding that some even traveled abroad without appropriate approval vowing that anybody caught will face the penalties.

He admonished the Education Secretaries as the head of each Local Government Education Authority Area, LGEA, and Headteacher of various Schools to be on top of their jobs as they will be held responsible for any lapses in their areas and schools.

While underscoring the need for Education Secretaries and Head Teachers to embark on a vigorous enrollment drive for pupils before the commencement of the new academic session in September to increase pupil population in their schools the Chairman directed the School Administrators to engage all the necessary stakeholders in the LGEAs like traditional rulers and their likes in the advocacy campaigns to achieve desire goal.

Source: New Telegraph.