Educationist harps on recruitment of quality teachers in Oyo state

An educationist, Dr Olumuyiwa Bamgbose, has underscored the need for recruitment of quality teachers to revamp the education sector in Oyo State.

In an interview with the newsmen in Ibadan on Thursday, Bamgbose, the CEO of Educational Advancement Centre (EAC), said the quality of teachers employed in the sector would improve the quality of education and reduce learning poverty in the state.

Oyo State reports that the Oyo State government intends to recruit 7000 teachers for primary schools and 7500 teachers for secondary schools to fill the existing vacancies.

It has already shortlisted 5000 candidates for employment out of the 7000 to be recruited and the successful ones have started collecting their letters of appointment.

The vacancies were as a result of years of lack of massive recruitment, retirement of teachers and the mass exodus of skilled Nigerian workers, including qualified teachers, in recent times.

According to him, the free education policy of the state should prioritise teacher quality and teachers’ commitment or motivation.

“Now, we see and appreciate what the government is doing a bit in this direction, by employing teachers and also trying to train existing teachers, but we see that we don’t have enough.

“We don’t have enough to spread around all the schools, especially the schools in the rural areas, in the sub-urban and you know that those places are underserved.

“But we also find another issue, a factor that could help in the education of children, which is parents. The parent involvement,” Bamgbose said.

He noted that parent’s involvement has been lacking in the education of children.

“So, in those days, we remember parents used to sit their children down to read, sometimes help them, if the parents are also educated or get somebody to come and intervene.

“This is lacking because parents are no longer having that commitment,” Bamgbose said.

The educatinist said that his interactions with some parents over the years suggested that some parents are willing to be involved in their wards’ education, but are hindered by the free education policy of Oyo State.

“They are pushed back by this policy that the government says there should be nothing paid by any parent.

“This free education policy is like a two-edged sword.

“It’s having its own negative repercussion on the attitude of parents and the outcome of learning,” Bamgbose said.

He stated that some disincentives and distractions have eroded the importance of learning.

Bamgbose lamented that the heroes, the celebrities, and the role models for children were no longer people who studied well, who learned well, and who made good marks in school.

“So, there are people who could sing well, who could dance well, or who could politic well, in terms of knowing how to manoeuvre figures during elections.

“Those are the people who are now heroes because they have the money and for children growing up, they see these things.

“And increasingly, you have children, when you ask them what they want to be when they grow, many of them now say, I want to be a politician, I want to be a footballer, I want to be a musician and some say I want to do Yahoo Yahoo.

“And, you know, encouraging people by saying that they shouldn’t pay even a token is a discouraging factor now to the education sector,” Bamgbose said.