The Kwara government has nullified the employment of over
2,000 workers employed by the state universal basic education board (SUBEB) in
2018.
Abdulfatah Ahmed, immediate past governor of Kwara, had
approved the employment of the affected teachers as part of efforts to address
the shortage at the time.
Yakub Ali-Agan, spokesman of the ministry of education and
human capital development, in a statement on Friday, said the government
directed the sack of the workers following an investigation by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which showed illegalities in the employment
process.
He also explained that Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, governor of
Kwara, has directed that the employment process be restarted, while 594 of the
teachers whose salaries had been withheld since June 2020 be paid on
“compassionate grounds”.
“Everyone whose salaries were withheld since June has now
had same paid strictly on compassionate grounds. The government’s decision to
withhold their salaries was not unilateral or punitive. It was as a result of
the unlawful insertion of their names to the payroll without executive
approval,” the spokesman said.
Ali-Agan noted that investigations by the government
revealed that some of the teachers didn’t have the requisite qualifications,
just as the number of those employed exceeded the figure approved by the former
administration.
“A total number of 2,414 SUBEB teachers were engaged in the
twilight of the past administration. They are otherwise called sunset workers.
This figure is a violent contravention of the executive approval by former
Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed who had authorised the employment of 1,100 qualified
teachers to take English Language, Mathematics, and Science subjects only,” the
statement reads.
“On assumption of office in 2019, Governor AbdulRahman
AbdulRazaq, faced with conflicting claims on these workers, magnanimously
authorised the screening of all of them, after which 1,658 were cleared as
qualified. Surprisingly, additional 594 got inserted into the payroll. There
are claims that 162 more were part of the mix. This was discovered during
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s investigation of the untidy process
that kept throwing up conflicting figures of employees and mind-boggling
details of how non-qualified persons were engaged.
“For instance, it was discovered that several of the 1,658
purportedly adjudged to be qualified do not in fact have required teaching
certificates. It was discovered that teachers were engaged for subjects not
covered in the executive approval, underscoring the unwholesome and impeachable
nature of the entire process.
“Flowing from the above, the government has decided to start
the employment process all over again in January 2021. The government will open
a new application portal for all the 2,414 and any other eligible persons to
apply for SUBEB teaching jobs in relevant subjects to be advertised. This
effectively nullifies the controversial employment process of 2018/2019.
“This new process will be largely technology-driven, and
needs-based, while every applicant will go through rigorous screenings.
“This painful yet necessary decision is built on justice and
fairness to everyone, particularly taxpayers and our children whose future
depends on the quality of teaching they receive at the elementary schools. It
is the right thing to be done in the interest of our education sector which has
suffered from years of unhealthy practices as those mentioned above.”
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