CROSS RIVER SPENDS N10 MILLION TO RECRUIT 500 TEACHERS

Cross River State Government has recommenced exercise to recruit 500 teachers within the month.

The exercise which saw forms sold to applicants in 2013. Teachers are to be recruited in the areas of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science.

 

In an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Monday in Calabar, the state commissioner for education, Prof. Offiong E. Offiong said that the recruitment exercise which will gulp N10 million will be completed within the month.

 

Offiong said the state government decided to use EDUCOMP Solutions, an Indian firm "which has been our partner in the reconstruction of education".

 

"...we took this pain to use a foreign agency because some of our teachers can not read, talk less of teaching. Not that local consultants are not credible but we needed to avoid external influences in the recruitment exercise".

 

On insinuations from certain quarters that the Imoke led administration is unable to resolve the three months old strike for the Cross River State University of Technology (CRUTECH) to re-open or pay civil servants' salaries since January 2015 "and wants to recruit 500 teachers and dump for the incoming administration", Offiong said, "This is not correct.

 

According to him, in 2008, the ministry recruited about 1000 teachers. In 2011, about 600 to 700 volunteer teachers were converted to permanent staff while many have also been recruited to technical schools across the state". He said the ministry is also collaborating with the Federal Government to recruit teachers.

On why the recruitment exercise which started since 2013 should wait till 2015, Prof Offiong said the consultants had arrived Nigeria in 2014 but the Ebola disease caused them to go back till the World Health Organisation (WHO) satisfied Nigeria Ebola free.

 

It would be recalled that because the purchase of forms took place since 2013, some applicants seem to have lost fait in the whole exercise. The commissioner assured applicants that "the exercise will be transparent and there will be no god fatharism".

 

To corroborate these facts, the consultant, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Rio, Director of Academics, EDUCOMP Solutions in charge of the recruitment exercise told Daily Times that the service of examinations which started last Saturday will include written exams, class room demonstration, aptitude test and the use of English, which will be completed within the week.

 

Rio told this reporter that any amount invested in the recruitment exercise will not be a waste as the firm will select the best, devoid of any external influences.