By Nick Dugba
As part of the promise of the Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku’s government to create employment for the youth and rescue the decaying educational system in the State, screening for the employment of a total of three thousand teachers tagged ‘rescue teachers’, has began to ensure their eligibility to nurture students in schools across the entire state.
At a ceremony to flag off the process today at the State Post Primary Schools Management Board office in Jalingo, the State Commissioner of Education, Johannes Jigem, stated that there were two reasons why the government embarked on the recruitment which include, to improve and maintain the standard of education in the State and also to curb unemployment.
He reiterated hat the recruitment was for teachers alone and that anyone who is an employee of any local government council or a primary school teacher should count himself out of the exercise, warning that anyone caught and identified as having to belong to any of those categories of workers would be prosecuted.
Jigem, while addressing the teeming applicants, explained the challenges being faced by the government in addressing issues of primary school teachers in the state.
According to him, there were about 2500 ‘bonafide teachers’ that have not been paid while the banks have been able to capture about 2100 fake teachers.
He said the government was in a dilemma as certain false teachers were benefitting from what was suppose to be for the bonafide ones.
He however, appealed to the ‘bonafide teachers’ to be more patient as steps were being taken to address the issue.
He used the opportunity to state that after the screening and interview of the candidates, a comprehensive list of primary school teachers and local government staff would be verified to ensure there was no foul play.
The commissioner warned the applicants to be wary of fraudulent persons who may come around asking them to pay them certain amount of money for favour.
He then thanked the governor, Darius Ishaku, for bringing to reality his promise to recruit new teachers and enjoined the screening committee to avoid truancy and do a thorough job to secure the future generation of Tarabans.
Meanwhile, a total of one thousand applicants with degrees and NCEs have been shortlisted for screening out of the possible 3000 that would be recruited.