Report by SULEIMAN PAKI and AWUHE TERFA; Editing by BASIRAT MEMUDU
Teachers Service Board has debunked allegations of financial inducement of staff to influence the posting of teachers to specific areas in Kaduna state.
Chairman of the Board, Adamu Makadi who confirmed this during an exclusive interview with Radio Nigeria Kaduna said, the allegations were malicious, unfounded and unsubstantiated, targeted at undermining achievements of the board under the administration of Governor Uba Sani.
The Chairman frowned at the situation where by most teachers insist on serving in Metropolitan cities mostly Kaduna, Zaria or Kafanchan even when they know that their services were not needed in these areas.
Adamu Makadi said the board had made it a duty to decongest schools in city centres by prioritizing postings to rural and hard to reach areas based on a reasonable template.
“In fact, in order to reduce the difficulty and hardship, we liaise with the principals of these rural and hard to reach schools to find out if there are people from those communities that are serving elsewhere, that want to go back to the community so that they can help, because it is easier for somebody from the community to go back and teach than getting some one from Kaduna who has never been to that place”.
He said the strategy had worked in some communities while in others; it has not been successful because of inadequacy in the number of teachers from such communities serving in different parts of the state, stressing that most are in sectors other than Education.
The Chairman demanded those make allegations of financial inducement to influence postings, to step forward and identify staff members who are demanding money from teachers.
“I want you to say Mr X, Miss X, Mrs X demanded for this to enable him/her post me or I have offered this to Mr X, Miss X or Mrs X to help move to so so place, then we will take actions, we have effective mechanism to deal with such officers if found wanting”.
On the issue of promotion of teachers, the Chairman was emphatic that it had remained a transparent process that involves key stakeholders in the Education Sector.
Adamu Makadi further commended the priority placed on Education by the administration of Governor Uba Sani, particularly in the area of teacher training, retraining and development.
“Teachers need to be trained, retrained and developed on what they are doing in the classrooms. So thank God, the government is supportive of that, there are so many collaborations with sister agencies to ensure that teachers receive effective and regular training and development to enable them improve on what they do”.
The Chairman said apart from the high budgetary allocation to the Education sector this year, which was unprecedented in the history of Kaduna state, the government had also prioritized massive infrastructure development which is currently on-going across the three senatorial zones of the state.