Royal father hails Oshiomhole over Competency test cancellation

The Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji Aliru Momoh, Ikelebe III, has commended Governor Adams Oshiomhole for cancelling the Competency test proposed by the state government for teachers in public schools in the state.

The Governor had announced the cancellation of the competency test, the restoration of pay of 936 teachers and the approval of other incentives to the teachers at a meeting with the NLC, TUC and NUT, last Thursday.

Speaking on Saturday at the formal presentation of the winner of this year’s Koranic recitation competition held in Jigawa State, the Otaru of Auchi said the move will douse the tension and fears of the teachers on what they erroneously thought was a ploy by the government to retrench them.

According to the royal father, “last night I was watching the network news and I was very, very happy to hear the very credible statements made by our governor about teachers. The teachers are now all back. Those who were sacked have been asked to come and resume work. Teachers who are supposed to be taking exams have been exempted from taking exams and those who are qualified to retire will be retired with full pay so I thank you and God bless you. So I must say that not only Edo State but Nigeria as a whole must be happy about this development.”

The Otaru said the extension of other entitlements to the teachers would increase their productivity, saying he hoped the Governor’s gesture would be adequately rewarded by the teachers and their union to further throw their support behind him to ensure more development in the state.

Speaking on the occasion, Governor Oshiomhole admonished Muslim faithful to imbibe the spirit and teachings of the holy Prophet Mohammad in order to ensure peace and unity among all ethnic nationalities across the country.

He said, “Let me appreciate your highness for your commitment to promoting not just the teaching of the Holy Koran but those core Islamic values because the bane of our society today is that far too many people exercise power without the fear of the Almighty God.

“Quite too many people will go to any length to do anything even if that will threaten the corporate existence of our community and our country.

“By promoting the correct interpretation of the Holy Koran, you are making it impossible for extremists to change the correct interpretation of the Holy Book, (Koran) and when young people internalise the true meaning of Islam, they preach the true message of Prophet Mohammad, it helps to deny those who seek to interpret the Koran upside down, the passport to do so.”

Oshiomhole extolled the male and female participants from Edo State who participated in this year’s Koranic Recitation competition for bringing glory to the state.

He said, “I am very encouraged to see the young boy and girl reciting the Koran as if they have a Ph.D in Islamic studies and it shows that we all can excel if we have a leadership that encourages the young ones rather than being idle, they can engage with the Holy Book and imbibe the spirit and teachings of the Holy Prophet Mohammed such that they can help to spread the teachings across communities and help to unite our people, then there will be peace everywhere.”

Governor Oshiomhole assured the people of Edo State especially Muslim faithful that he will rather use the resources of the state to provide development for the people than enrich the pocket of a few private individuals.

He added, “They frown when they see transformer being delivered and electricity restored, they frown when they see new roads being constructed, they frown when they see a new school. Yet some of those who are in politics whose purpose ought to be to maximise delivering of these deliverables, they are the ones to now argue that roads is not food for them to eat, school is not food for them to eat, that if you have provided infrastructure for the people, what about the infrastructure for their own stomach? Oshiomhole retorted.

He thanked the Otaru of Auchi and his Councils of Chiefs for their continuous support and prayers and sued for its sustenance. He used the occasion to announce a personal donation of N200,000 to the winners of this year’s Koranic recitation and pledged the State Government’s assistance in the establishment of an Islamic Centre in Auchi.

Earlier, Coordinator, Edo Musabaka, Alhaji Ibrahim Oyarekhua appealed to Edo State Government to host the Koranic Recitation Competition in Edo State or any other state in the Southern part of the country.

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Royal father hails Oshiomhole over Competency test cancellation

Edo State government cancels teachers’ competency test, restores pay of 936

Edo State Government has soft-pedaled on the planned competency test for teachers in the state even as the government recalled the 936 teachers whose names were deleted from the payroll over certificate discrepancies and age falsification.

Oshiomhole

Also, the Government announced the immediate extention of the relativity to teachers in the state public schools.

Making the announcements today, Governor Adams Oshiomhole during a meeting with the teachers unions and the Nigeria Labour Congress said “On assumption of office, it was very clear to me and my colleagues that our future is defined by the level of investment in education and the quality of the basic education we provide for our children and that is why we have devoted resources to the rebuilding of our Primary Schools, Junior and Senior Secondary Schools.

“For me, it was clear coming from my own background, I had obligation to restore dignity to the educational sector in the state. Basic Education is like the foundation of a house. If the foundation is weak, the building will collapse but if the foundation be strong, it will withstand the test of time. It is easier to re roof than to re build a complete house”

The need to ensure the future of the state is not compromised by compromising the future of the Edo child necessitated the action to redefine the educational system in the state. State Government’s commitment to carry out competency test was informed by these broad facts having discovered that some of our teachers were not qualified or up to date with recent teaching methods. Our insistence on the fact that competency test must be seen in this light.

“However, having listened to all suggestions and consultations with various groups, Government has agreed to set aside the Competency or Assessment test in order to re assure Edo workers that government has no intention to sack anyone.”

The Governor said in place of the competency test, Government will introduce training and re-training for teachers and all others civil servants in the State, promising that welfare package will be provided during the training exercise

According to him, “On the teachers with falsified age declaration with criminal intentions to cheat, government has resolved to pardon them and retire those whose records show that they are above 60 years while those below 60 years are to return to the classroom with their names returned to the payroll and will benefit from the training programme.

“Following investigation, the alleged Ghost Workers in Ovia North East Local Government Area who have been found to have actually been on ground will have their two months pending salary paid. I will discuss with the Local Government Chairman on how to effect their payments.”

Responding, the trio of the leadership of organised labour, NLC, TUC, and NUT expressed thanks to the Comrade Governor adding that the prolonged crisis faced by leadership of the organised labour as it affects teachers and workers in the state will now be a thing of the past.

They promised to continually give their full support and allegiance to the administration of the Comrade Governor stressing that teachers in the state will now sleep with both eyes closed.

Edo State government cancels teachers’ competency test, restores pay of 936

Reinstate us in paypal - Edo Civil Servants beg Oshiomhole

 

BENIN—NO fewer than 227 civil servants whose names were allegedly omitted from the payroll of the Edo State Civil Service for the month of March, 2014 have appealed to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of the state to intervene in their plight, just as they called for their reinstatement and payment of all their outstanding allowances.

Adams Oshiomhole

The affected workers, in an open letter to the governor through their counsel, Mr. Olayiwola Afolabi, said that they had not attained the age of 60 nor served the mandatory 35 years in service in consonance with the Federal Government policy of computing the service years of public officers who have proceeded on study leave without pay, with effect from July 6, 2004.

“It is our understanding that their removal from the payroll was carried out on the premise that our clients need not enjoy any extension accruing from the extra years supposedly granted to workers who proceeded on study leave without pay and rightly proved themselves qualified in character and in learning and have, through the years, continuously employed the knowledge acquired to improve on the quality of service delivery in the state,” Afolabi said.

He quoted the Federal Government Circular dated December 1, 2006 by Mohammed Ahmed, Head of Service of the Federation, on approval of study leave for civil servants, which read: “Approval has been given for officers to serve the period they were on study leave without pay, provided that the period of study is limited to the normal duration of the course,” to prove their point.

Insisting that the Edo State Civil Service was under no compulsion to maintain the Federal Government’s position, they, however said that by virtue of a circular dated September 13, 2007 by Dr. J.E. Igbinedion for the Head of Service, the  state government communicated to all civil servants and the public that it had adopted the Federal Government’s policy on restoration of non-pensionability  of the period of study leave without pay for officers as contained in the Federal Government circular.

The affected workers argued that by virtue of the circular letter dated September 13, 2007 and another dated March 17, 2009 from the office of the Head of Service, Edo State, the state government committed itself to ensuring the extension of their service period.

Meanwhile, some school teachers who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS (NCN)  have complained that Adams Oshiomhole intentionally came up with the competency test in order to remove them from the payroll,

The grumbled that the test was not necessary and everyone who he has decided to remove are suffering, working without pay.

They appeal to the government to reconsider saying that they are struggling parents who do everything possible to put food on their children’ table

Reinstate us in paypal - Edo Civil Servants beg Oshiomhole

So many quacks as teachers in Edo State - Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State says the question  of his party, All Progressive Congress (APC), zoning the presidency in the 2015 general elections does not arise as the party has no provision for it. The governor also, in this interview, speaks on his running battle with teachers over qualification, his efforts to address infrastructural deficit in Edo and the National Conference, among other issues. Excerpts:

Oshiomhole

The burning issue right now in Edo State is your effort to reform the educators. You have rebuilt schools but the people who make good education possible – the teachers – you have been having running battles with them over the need to identify the qualified ones among them through competency tests. Even though the problem is there all over the country, can you describe the peculiar situation in Edo State?

We have abandoned the idea of competency test for what we now call assessment test. The basic difference is that we want to assess the teachers in our employment to find out what is the level  of their competence. That way we will be able to establish the level of assistance they require. For instance, a man who has a National Certificate of Education (NCE) but can’t teach will be put in the hands of experts to determine the kind of training he requires to make up for his deficiency.

If he has the knowledge but does not know how to impart the skill, an appropriate training can be designed. On the other hand, if we find that someone was not supposed to be a teacher at all; he is not even educated but somehow, due to corrupt practices, either through monetary inducement or political manipulations by successive governments and they were dumped on the system, such that their weaknesses cannot be cured through training and retraining, we will decide what to do with them.

If they cannot be redeployed to other areas where they can be useful, then they have to give way to others who have what it takes. We want to understand the nature of the problem besetting education in Edo State, that is why we call it assessment. We can help teachers to be upgraded through in-service training and  refresher courses.

We need a lot of investment in education because that is the most important infrastructure. Infrastructure like roads, hospitals, electricity, water – those are conventional infrastructure that people can see. The most important infrastructure is human capital. And the foundation is primary and secondary education.

I think that is the logic behind compulsory basic education; that every child, irrespective of  his economic circumstances, should have quality basic education. If you get the buildings, the furniture and other things right but the teacher is not competent, then all that investment will be wasted.

As I walk round the state, I often come across young pupils going or coming from school, most times in company of their parents. I look at the uniform and realise that it does not belong to one of the government schools. Some of the m are attending these mushroom private schools. Some of the schools operate  from  uncompleted buildings, no playgrounds, no sporting, recreational facilities.

Then I ask the kid, why do you like to go to that school?’ Or sometimes I ask, ‘have you seen the government schools, the red roof schools?’ They say ‘yes’. ‘So why are you not attending there?’ ‘My mummy or my daddy said no I should attend this one’. A couple of times I have had to interview their parents. They tell me they are happy with the way we have rebuilt the public schools but they are not sure of the teachers.

Across the country, everybody recognizes the crisis in the education sector. It is easy to see the dilapidated school buildings. What is not easy to see is the quality of the teaching staff. The result is that every year West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and other examination bodies announce 70 per cent failure. And we just move on.

We are producing children who do not have what it takes to be employable, or go into the university or polytechnic or even acquire technical education. You now have educated people who cannot read and write.

To underscore the problem, I came across a woman who, in the course verifying her credentials, could not read an affidavit. Instead of “I solemnly declare”, she said “1 Solomon”. Instead of “Judicial Province”, she said: “Onitsha Prophet”.

“Judicial” starts with “J”, yet she was confusing “Judicial” with “Onitsha”. “Province” is “Prophet”. We asked yet another teacher: ‘how many local governments are there in Edo State, list some of them?’ She said: “UNIBEN”. UNIBEN is a local government! I mean, I don’t want to talk about it. We saw things like these in the process of checking credentials, and we realised that the problem goes beyond ghost teachers, or teachers refusing rural postings, but that there are people parading as teachers who are not.

We have too many quacks masquerading as teachers. And the moment I realised this, it was only natural that I had to find courage to deal with this human element which makes all the difference. I started meeting with the Nigerian Union  of Teachers (NUT), civil society organizations, we had town hall meetings. In all these meetings, civil society, human rights organizations, royal fathers, community leaders, market women all said yes, teachers must do this test.

 

So many quacks as teachers in Edo State - Oshiomhole

Edo teachers dare Oshiomhole over competency test

The Edo Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) said on Thursday that its members would not seat for any competency test conducted by the state government.

The Chairman of the chapter, Mr Mike Uhunmwangho disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin.

Oshiomhole

Uhunmwangho said that NUT members would not seat for any test because a court had restrained the Edo state government  from conducting the test.

“The next court sitting on the matter comes up on April 12 in Akure,” he said.

Uhunmwangho said that those who sat for the recently-conducted assessment test were not teachers but government officials.

“Those of them who went for the test are commissioners, including other government officials.

“We are not going to write any test, even if given a second chance,” Uhunmwangho said.

NAN reports that Gov. Adams Oshiomhole, while receiving the report of the Teachers Assessment Committee on April 2, said that the test was compulsory for all teachers.

Oshiomhole said any public school teacher, who had not taken the assessment test would not remain on the payroll of the government.

He added that: “there is no stopping the teachers’ assessment test”.

The governor stressed that the government would conduct another assessment test for those who were yet to seat for the test.

The governor, however, gave the teachers two weeks within which to comply.

Uhunmwangho said the NUT was waiting for the government to sack those who did not take the test.

“It will be a world headline that the Edo State Government sacked about 17,000 teachers in the state pubic primary and secondary schools because of their refusal to write an assessment test.

“He had already sacked 925 teachers.

“Why are Nigerians not asking that the same measure be use for other workers on the state’s payroll?

“Why is it that it is only teachers that are affected because it was all the workers in Edo state that participated in the state organised biometrics?

“If he believes that he cannot follow the law that brought him into power, we leave the issue to the people who know the law better,” Uhunmwangho said.

He added that there were no chairs, tables and laboratories in most of the renovated schools in the state.

He added that those were pressing issues that needed to be tackled.

Edo teachers dare Oshiomhole over competency test

Assessment: Absentee teachers may have their names deleted from payroll, says Oshiomhole

Teachers in Public Primary and Secondary Schools in Edo State who failed to show up for the Assessment exercise organized by the state government may have their names deleted from the state’s payroll, Governor Adams Oshiomhole has said.

Governor Oshiomhole

Speaking, Wednesday, while receiving the report of the exercise from the Teachers’ Assessment Committee led by Prof Dennis Agbonlahor, former Vice Chancellor, Ambrose Alli University, Oshiomhole said “I can readily tell you is that no teacher will remain in the pay roll of Edo State Government if we have not assessed him and convinced that he is indeed a fit and proper person to be entrusted with the classroom or the particular subject which our pupils are asked to learn.”

He said: “this for us is not politics; it is to stress the essence of governance and prepare our kids for the future for the inevitable role they have to play.

“Flipping through the report it is clear that you did a thorough job, painstakingly analyzing all the issues like elder statesmen and good educationists in spite of the harassment and subtle threat and you remained focused on the assignment and in the end, you have come out with a report that, I believe, will help us to have greater insight into the challenge of managing an efficient and reliable primary and secondary education.

“Even more importantly, you have ideas of what we have to do with the outcome and you gave a set of options. I believe the innocent children whose future is an issue and their parents and guardians, their spirit, their wishes to prepare their children for the future, our God will reward you for helping to advise on how best we can help to protect their future”, he said.

Oshiomhole said “I want to assure you that having generously obliged your time, and courageously carried out this assignment, we will have the political will to deal with all the issues. We are in politics to drive change. I do not think it is enough for someone to say that was how I met it. I want to be remembered for a guy who took the difficult decision and at the end paid the price.

“I like to assure you that once we have started, there is no stopping and no one is going to block us till we get to that point where we are convinced that as government we have done enough to secure the future of the Edo children.

“I will invite you back when we have formed an opinion on what we will do next.”

Earlier, Chairman of the 7-member Assessment Committee, Professor Dennis Agbonlahor said the committee carried out the task and made all the necessary recommendations to ensure that the workforce of teachers in Edo State are properly trained and retrained.

“Those who failed to participate should be made to do so at the next available opportunity. It is in their interest to do so. We thank the government for the opportunity given to us to serve in this capacity,” he said.

Other members of the committee are Prof. Abigail Imogie, Prof Ikponwonse Ogie, Prof Noah Musa, Prof Sunny Omobude-Idiado, Prof Lilian Salami and Prof Austin Osunde.

Assessment: Absentee teachers may have their names deleted from payroll, says Oshiomhole

Competency test: NBA attacks Edo State Government

Edo State Government has been lashed by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for the competency test conducted for the primary and secondary school teachers in the state by disregarding the injunction of the National industrial Court in Abuja, restraining the government from conducting the test as there was teachers suit before the court.

Oshiomhole

This was contained in a statement by the NBA Benin branch Chairman, Mr. O. Akere. He said “We wish to remind the Edo State Government that the strict observance of the rule of law as a fundamental pillar of democracy and adherence to due process are some of the indices by which a responsible government is assessed. The colossal failure of the said competency test is a demonstration of the fact that a determined legitimate resolve of a people cannot be defeated even with the barrel of a gun.”

He commended the teachers who refused to write the competency test and said  “we are also in receipt of information that there is a clandestine move by the Edo State Government to remove from payroll, names of workers whose years of service were legitimately extended as a result of study leave without pay.”

NBA advised the state government to desist from challenging the sensibility of the people, disobeying the rule of law and advise that government to stop the unlawful and disgraceful step.

Reminding the government of one of its responsibility, he said that the government should do things to boost the workers’ welfare and not things to undermine it,  as the decision to extend the services of workers who went on study leave without pay was a decision of the Federal Executive Council in 2006, which was subsequently adopted by the Edo State Executive Council.

“Even if the Edo State Executive Council decides to reverse its decision on the issue, such reversal should not be retro-active,” it said.

 

Competency test: NBA attacks Edo State Government

Politics of Competence: Oshiomhole’s difficult options

As a labour leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole led popular actions against different governments. Now, the teachers’ union in Edo State are up in arms against a plan by the state administration to verify their competence for the job they do.

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole had at different fora expressed his determination to lift the level of education in the state. It even became more pressing on him after he visited a primary school and met a teacher who could not read well. So the need of verifying the competence of the teachers in the school system became a pressing matter for the state administration.

Governor Oshiomhole was backed by some strategic stakeholders in his pursuit. Speakers at a stakeholders’ meeting which took place at Imaguero College Hall gave the governor the go ahead to organize the test for the teachers, and this was what gave birth to the Prof. Dennis Agbonlahor Committee that was saddled with the task of organizing the Competency test.

The test was, however, strongly opposed by some other stakeholders, mostly the teachers who were involved.A meeting between some civil society groups and the leadership of the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers [NUT] to find a common ground over the objection of the teachers to the competency test ended in deadlock on Wednesday.

Concerned members of the civil society in the state also met privately with Governor Oshiomhole towards reaching a common ground between the administration and the warring teachers.

But after all the negotiations last week, the teachers stuck to their guns. Speaking with newsmen soon after one of the meetings held at the famous Teachers House, State Chairman of the NUT, Comrade Mike Ununmwangho said the teachers would not write the competency test as he described the exercise as vindictive adding that the teachers do not trust the State Government.

The state administration, however, rejected the claims.

“The test is not to sack or witch-hunt any teacher but to ascertain those who might need assistance and level of training or retraining required as part of the determination of the Adams Oshiomhole administration to deliver an all-round quality education for the Edo child”, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Loius Odion said while denying the receipt of a court order restraining the government from going ahead with the test.

However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State on its part while opposing the competency test berated the state government for “using every means possible, including the proposed conduct of competency test for teachers in the state to generate revenue.”

The party stated that the state government was using “the competency test, along with some other policies including repressive tax policies to shore up the state’s depleted vault.”

State chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, who in a statement before the exercise said, “using competency test as a yardstick for retrenchment means using teachers as scapegoat for the dire financial crisis the state governments has plunged the state into.”

”We condemn in very strong term the decision to conduct the competency test. It is discriminatory and unacceptable. For it to be justified, the state government should first of all subject everyone to competency test, starting from the Government House. We sympathize with teachers at this time because we know they are being made the sacrificial lamb.

“As we have repeatedly stated, the proper thing is to organize in-house training for teachers as done by the administration of the late Ambrose Alli. Teachers who were found lacking then were not discarded as being planned but trained to become useful for themselves and their families. We say Governor Oshiomhole should not turn people who are bread winners in their families to bread seekers.

The PDP’s assertion was tackled by the All Progressives Congress, APC which threw its weight behind the test.

The APC state organizing secretary, Mr. Thomas Okosun in his own reaction said:

“I want to state clearly that I am in total support of the competency test organised for teachers. You cannot be a teacher when you don’t know what to teach neither do you entrust the future of your children into such people’s hands. You have ASCON in Lagos where civil servants undergo training and test in order to get promotion, so also in states and federal ministries.”

“The party is in support, I am in total support because this is the best that can happen to our educational system.”

On the eve of the competency test last Saturday, another dimension emerged following the call on teachers by the National Coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Mr. Charles Faluyi to shun the test on the ground that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Abuja had restrained the government and the Committee it set up to conduct the test from doing so pending the hearing and determination of suit brought before it by the teachers.

He therefore directed all secondary schools teachers in the state to disregard whatever threat by government aimed at coercing them to writing the test, just as he expressed disappointment over alleged recruitment of touts, paid agents to pose as teachers, technical school teachers and principals in the examination centres in order to deceive the teachers and the public that the competency test was taking place.

Earlier, the National Industrial Court, presided over by Justice B. A. Adejumo, had granted an interim injunction restraining the government from going ahead with the test.

The state PDP chairman, Chief Orbih was quick to welcome the judgment even as he called on Comrade Oshiomhole to heed the injunction.

“This public-spirited courage is in tune with democratic principles and has the propensity of ensuring that members of the teachers’ union are not mistreated, oppressed and persecuted under any guise.”

Mr. Odion, the commissioner for information, however, denied knowledge of any such injunction.

“We have received media enquiries over rumour of an injunction purportedly granted by a court restraining Edo State Government from going ahead with the teachers’ assessment exercise scheduled to hold today, Saturday, March 22″

“Therefore, this is to reassure teachers of primary and secondary schools and the general public that the assessment exercise scheduled for today, Saturday, March 22 will still hold.”

“Anyone who fails to write the test will be deemed as constituting a clog in the wheel of our progress and, consequently, will have his or her name deleted from the payroll”.

The state commissioner for Basic Education, Washington Osifo who accompanied the chairman of the assessment test committee, Prof. Agbonlahor to the accreditation hall, said the state government was not aware of any court injunction stopping the state government from conducting the test.

“Government is set to conduct the assessment test. Nobody will force anybody to do what is right. The test is in the interest of the teachers and Edo children. We are not aware of any restraining order stopping the test. An attempt to get an order does not in itself translates to an order stopping the conduct of the test,” Osifo said.

Remarkably, turnout at the three centres earmarked for the test was paltry as only about 73 teachers out of the thousands of teachers in the public school system turned out.

Meanwhile, counsel to the teachers, Afolabi Olayiwola has indicated that the state government will sued for contempt of court for going ahead to conduct the test.

The state government on its part has declared the exercise as very successful saying that it was waiting for the Report of the Prof. Agbonlahor Committee before knowing want to do next.

For a comrade who ascended to office on the wings of populism, the options ahead of the comrade governor are indeed no easy choices.

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Politics of Competence: Oshiomhole’s difficult options

NUT attacks Oshiomhole over teachers competency test

The National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Michael Olukoya, on Tuesday described the competency test, organised for teachers in Edo as a ploy “to weed out teachers.”

Oshiomhole

Olukoya made the statement in Lagos at a news conference, organised by the Lagos State Branch of the NUT.

He said that the competency of an employee was determined at the point of appointment.

“It must be emphasised that teaching is a service industry and not a product industry like breweries and textile manufacturing, where products pass through quality control mills to qualify for the market.”

According to Olukoya, in teaching and other service industries, competency is behavioural and not mechanical.

“In teaching, which is powered by the science, principles and work of teaching, the competency of a teacher takes very many dimensions. These include the knowledge of the subject.

“The knowledge of the subject must conform to appropriate methodology, class management and control.

“A teacher in his approach must understand the psychology of his pupils or students which includes the home background, individual differences and intelligent quotient to determine the gifted and mentally challenged.

“The question is: Given these many competencies that must combine to make effective teaching, which of the competencies is our Edo State comrade governor intending to test?

“If he must test all, how many hours examination is required.”

Olukoya said that on Dec. 4, 2013, a letter was given to the Edo State Branch of the NUT entitled: “Competency Test for Teachers in Edo State.”

He said the letter was signed by the Edo Commissioner for Basic Education, Mr Agunede Patrick.

The letter’s intent, he said was “to enable the government determine the level of competence of teachers with principal intent of upgrading their capacity”.

Olukoya said that in response to the letter, the Edo State NUT said the best way to flush quacks out of the profession was not through aptitudinal test.

The union, he said, had advised that the action should be “behavioural in strengthening the supervisory organ of education-the inspectorates.

“Our professional advice as it was, is that the competency of a teacher can only be behaviorally determined through effective inspectorate system and not the aptitudinal testing.”

Olukoya said that the NUT was ready to submit its teachers to professional competency testing by a legally-constituted body but not to “political licensing by the Edo State Government.

“It is with passion in our heart that we also call on the State Government to recall the 926 teachers sacked on account of their age declaration.

“Their sack lacks equity and justice,” Olukoya stated.

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NUT attacks Oshiomhole over teachers competency test