Govt warns Teachers, Public Servants on Absentism, Lateness.

Osun State Government Wednesday October 21,  warned all public servants in particular the public school teachers to brace up to justify the service for which they are being paid for by the government.

The state government said that it will no longer tolerate absentism and laziness among teachers in public schools in the state.

The State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori gave the warning in Osogbo while flagging off the distribution of instructional materials to over 300 Middle Schools across the state.

Mrs. Laoye-Tomori who stressed that the decision was reached in order to restore sanity back to public schools across the state noting that the performance of pupils in examinations must reflect the huge resources the government is committing into the education sector.

According to her, “If you collect money for a service, people must be made to render such service to the public. A situation whereby teachers are absent from schools will no longer be tolerated by this administration. When we have 35 payment vouchers for drawing salaries from the coffers of the government and only twelve teachers are actually coming to school, this indecency in the education sector must stopped because this is the only way sanity could be brought to the sector.

Mrs. Laoye-Tomori who is also the State Commissioner for Education however said that the government will not relent in its efforts at improving the sector to greater height, adding that the current administration was planning to introduce teachers housing scheme programme where teachers estates would be constructed by the government especially for those that were posted to rural areas.

She further disclosed that the state government would soon introduce unified Joint Examination Scheme for all the pupils in public primary and secondary schools in the state in order to access them for external examinations.

The Deputy Governor noted that both pupils and teachers with very good tract records would be rewarded by the state government annually.

She solicited for the support and cooperation of the civil servants to the government so as to deliver good democracy to the people lamenting that when the state allocation from the federation account was good, the administration decided on its volition to jerk up grant to school from N200 per school per year to N300 per pupil per year.

The Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Chief Felix Awofisayo noted that the provision of instructional materials is germane to better performance of teachers and leaners adding that “this is why the state among other provisions deemed it fit to provide all necessary instructural materials for all the Middle Schools in the state.

He therefore passionately appealed to the residents of the state to enroll their children and wards in public schools in order to benefit from the largesse of the state government.

Awofisayo noted that since the emergence of Ogbeni Aregbesola administration in the state, over N595m had been disbursed as school running grants to all elementary schools.

The Permanent Secretary, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Fatai Kolawole lauded the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration for the provision of instructional materials which he said are designed to serve as a major tools for assisting in the teaching/learning process.

“The materials are educational inputs that are of vital importance to teaching and learning. It has been observed that their availability in schools will go a long way in assisting the Principals and Teachers in qualitative delivery of knowledge and curriculum controls, hence efforts of this government to make the materials available despite the paucity of funds in the state.