Osun: NUT Urges Transparency In Teachers’ Recruitment

Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Osun State Chapter, has called on Governor Ademola Adeleke, to prioritise transparency in the ongoing teachers recruitment process.

The union commended the governor for the approval of 5000 teachers and 250 education officers to be recruited into the teaching profession in the state.

A statement jointly signed by the state Chairman and Secretary of the Union, Comrades Fatade Muritala Olatoke and Akin Ade-Ojo, on Tuesday, described the recruitment as ‘timely and well-intentioned’ to fill the many year’s vacancies in the teaching profession.

The union reiterated that the ongoing recruitment, no doubt, will go a long way in improving the learning capacity of pupils and students of both public primary and secondary schools in the state.

The union described Governor Ademola Adeleke as a man of words who, in his less than two-year-old administration, has never for once, compromised standards on anything that will bring progress to the state and its people.

The statement, however, urged the Osun state government to be above board in the processes of the recruitment exercise continuing across the state online.

The statement reads: “Osun state wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), wishes to use this medium to acknowledge and commend Osun state government under the leadership of Senator Ademola Adeleke for approving the recruitment of 5000 teachers and 250 Education Officers into the Osun teaching profession.

“It is incontrovertible to state that our over three decades old state, Osun, is in need of well-trained and qualified teachers to shore up the wide lacuna brought about by the shortage of teachers in the state over the years.

“No doubt, the entire good people of this state including, teachers, students, and parents in particular, will never forget in a hurry, the ceaseless efforts made and still being made by Ademola Adeleke led government, to right the many wrongs that hitherto enveloped the education sector.

“As a way of recall, over the years, shortage of teachers has been one of the banes of the teaching profession in this state, which has had negative consequences, not only on our children in both public primary and secondary schools but education sector generally in the state.

“Without any iota of equivocation, the NUT, which is the umbrella of all teachers in Osun state and Nigeria as a whole, is committed and alive to the ideals of getting ongoing recruitment drive into the teaching profession achieve the desired goals and objectives in Osun state.

“To this end, as a Union, we wish to implore the state government, to allow the hiring processes currently going online to be strictly merit-driven by making sure that it is completely free of any political bias or nepotistic tendency of any kind.

“Our Union,is quick to state that, anything short of making the processes open and transparent, will defeat the noble ideal of getting the best hands to fill the existing vacant positions in our schools.

“As a Union, which, will never mortgage the nobility of age-old teaching profession, our Union, calls Adeleke-led administration, to also make the would-be teachers will be eventually shortlisted undergo a Computer Based Test ( CBT) to further guarantee that those to be eventually engaged are ICT compliant in line with the best global practices in the teaching profession.

“To further augment the drive of getting the best hands, we call on the state government, to put in place an independent panel comprising competent and experienced professionals to be drawn from major stakeholders in education sector like NUT, AOPSHON, ANCOPS, among others so that the would-be teachers would, again, be made to carry out practical teaching exercise before the panel members. This, we believe, will be another effectively efficient method to assess the competency of the teachers to be engaged in Osun teaching profession.

“As a Union, we affirm and reaffirm our support and solidarity with the Ademola Adeleke-led administration in all its laudable programmes and policies aimed at giving a total facelift to the hitherto poor state of education in Osun state.

One of them, as contained in the recently released Government White Paper is premised on carrying out total renovation of public schools to ensure a conducive environment, not only for the students/pupils but teachers as well.

“Finally, we pray that the mutually beneficial relationship between NUT Osun state wing and Adeleke-led administration will continue to blossom unabated,” the union said.