March 1, 2009
SIR: 1100 Teachers who participated in the UBEC initiated scheme in Lagos have since been abandoned by the Lagos State government upon completion of the scheme in October 2008, despite the assurances we got from Lagos State government officials at the commencement of the scheme. I must state that the teachers distinguished themselves during the 2 years service and equally made sacrifices such as earning a sum of N13000 monthly and met all other requirements stipulated for us as qualified teachers at our respective primary schools.
SIR: 1100 Teachers who participated in the UBEC initiated scheme in Lagos have since been abandoned by the Lagos State government upon completion of the scheme in October 2008, despite the assurances we got from Lagos State government officials at the commencement of the scheme.
I must state that the teachers distinguished themselves during the 2 years service and equally made sacrifices such as earning a sum of N13000 monthly and met all other requirements stipulated for us as qualified teachers at our respective primary schools.
Currently, our classrooms where we taught as full time teachers are empty and thousands of pupils without teachers.
The scheme, which was largely funded by the federal government was meant to consistently recruit qualified teachers into public primary schools across the federation to make up for the acute short fall in public primary schools in order to arrest the falling standard in public education.
What surprises us all is the fact that our colleagues who participated in other states of the federation have been absorbed into their respective states services where they participated. For example, all 1200 scheme teachers who participated in Ogun state has been employed like other states (Gombe, Rivers, Oyo, Kwara etc.,) except Lagos. Some other states across the federation have begun second batch of the scheme while Lagos State have discontinue the process.
From what we can gather, the Lagos State government is preparing a list of teachers to be employed that is made up of those pencilled down by privileged persons (House of Assembly List, Governors List, etc.,) in Lagos while those who participated in the scheme are going to be left out.
We are appealing to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babantunde Fashola to consider the plight of the stranded teachers in the interest of public education in Lagos State.
Gabriel Adeniyi
Abule-Egba, Lagos State.
08061194199
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