ASABA/Nigeria: Delta State Government has been urged to absorb the community teachers in the various Ijaw speaking riverine areas who are placed on monthly stipend by their communities for filling the gap of inadequate teachers in the ongoing teachers’ recruitment exercise in the state.
According to representatives of the various concerned riverine communities many schools in the riverine communities do not have more than two or three teachers who were employed by the State Government as a result of lack of interest to stay in the communities by the teachers who were deployed to the areas for reasons best known to them.
Speaking during a peaceful protest in Asaba, some representatives of the concerned Ijaw riverine communities including the chairman of Tamigbe community, Mr. Stephen Akameyai Port Harcourt, the chairman of Esanma community in Bomadi Local Government Area of the state, Barr. Theophilus Akpoebimone Omoro and their counterpart in charge of Bulu-Elebiri community, Pagani Local Government Area, Comr. Derek Edih said that the call the state government to consider their community teachers and ensure they were incorporated into the state workforce had become necessary.
Other communities present were Ogiagbene, Okoloba and Ogo-Eze communities among others.
They said that that for the state government to impact positively on the the children of riverine communities in the area of driving its educational policy, government needed to employ the community teachers, stressing that since they understood the terrain much better.
Comr. Derek Edih, Barr. Akpoebimone Omoro said that teachers in the riverine areas were competent and well gualified .
Earlier, the President of Ijaw Elite Forum, (IEF), Comr. Ganagana Francis stated that the reason for the peaceful demonstration was to set the educational standards in riverine communities.
Comr. Ganagana decried the dearth of teaching staff in riverine communities, saying that in most schools in urban areas there were over 130 teachers in a school yet one a principal and a teacher could be seen in riverine areas.
He said the call for government to employ the community teachers that were being paid by the PTA was imperative in order to improve standard of education in the areas.
Addressing the protesting group on behalf of the State Government, the Chairman of Post Primary Education Board (PPEB), Chief Christiana Etaluku explained that she had already informed the State Governor, Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa on the importance of considering community teachers in the recruitment exercise.
Chief (Mrs.) Etaluku said that upon Governor approval to her suggestion she immediately told principals in riverine communities to compile and forward the names of their community teachers and the subjects they were teaching for them to be included among those to be employed.
While commending them for the peaceful nature of the protest, Chief Etaluku said that what they had done showed that they had the interest of their communities at heart even as she affirmed that such community teachers needed to be compensated in the employment of teachers.
Chief Etaluku, who assured them that the Board would intensify monitoring of teachers in riverine areas as part of strategy to ensure that teachers in the areas took their job seriously, advised them to abstain from encouraging their children to indulge in examination malpractice.
