By Nwafor Okafor
About 1,000 teachers employed by a former governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, have no record with the state ministry of education, so says the state’s Commissioner for Education, Prof Ngozi-Chuma-Udeh.
The RAZOR NEWS had reported that the teachers were sacked by the incumbent government of Prof Chukwuma Soludo and asked to reapply in the ongoing recruitment of teachers’ exercise in the state.
Disgruntled by the development, the teachers petitioned the state’s House of Assembly, stating that they had worked for six months without pay and prayed the house to urge the executive arm of government to reinstate them.
In a meeting with the sacked teachers, the house committee, and some officials of the Ministry of Education, the state Commissioner for Education, Prof Ngozi-Chuma-Udeh said she did not meet any record of such teachers in her office when she assumed office, insisting that it was wrong to accuse the state government of terminating appointments of those that had no records of engagement.
She disclosed that the teachers narrated their ordeal to her after Governor Chukwuma Soludo had instructed her to put in place the process for teachers’ recruitment in the state.
According to the Commissioner, she advised them to key into the new teachers’ recruitment exercise conducted by her ministry as a means of reassessing them, saying that present administration wanted to have a brand of teachers that would move the schools in the state to meet the technological world.
The Commissioner expressed disappointment that most of sacked teachers who did not heed her advice went online insulting her and scandalising the government, adding that those of them that participated in the recruitment exercise would come for oral interview and join the system, while others who did not partake in the exercise would wait for the next assessment to join in the exercise.
Reacting, the affected teachers who spoke through their lawyer, Emeka Egbo prayed the state government to consider those of them that were qualified in the recruitment of teachers since they had contributed to the development of education.
Corroborating their submission, one of the teachers, Mr Uchenna Eze apologised on behalf of the teachers for the public insult on the Commissioner by some of their colleagues, assuring that such ugly trend would not repeat itself.
In his remarks, the chairman of Anambra State House of Assembly committee on Public Petitions, Emeka Aforka said the committee would invite key officials of the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board and Post Primary Schools Service Commission as well as the immediate past Commissioner for Education, Prof Kate Omenugha, to ascertain why there was no record of the recruitment of the teachers in the Ministry of Education, since they were the people that engaged them.
