Nepotism, Job Selling and Education in A’Ibom State. Before now, jobs in Nigeria were given to those with experiences and expertise. Intensive interviews were usually conducted to select those capable of handling different jobs and can perform efficiently and effectively. Since the focus then was on performance, even if you have a godfather, if you failed to perform well in the interview, you would not have the job. Unfortunately, when corruption and nepotism gained acceptance in the Nigerian’s political culture, instead of providing employments to people based on merit, they were given on “man know man” criterion. Clearly, Governor Godswill Akpabio’s administration, since inception, is guilty of this malpractice. The government has opened employment opportunities in the state civil service, local government service commission, the judiciary and the state secondary education board. However, it has been observed that the available vacancies are shared among the politicians and civil servants who occupy prominent posts in the ministries and parastatals, even when those who have no prominent persons to protect their interests would be deceived to write aptitude tests that would be dumped somewhere without marking and assessing the tests. Those who have the slots either give them to their children, relatives, and friends or sold them to members of the public that can afford N300, 000.00 per slot. Experts say that a nation cannot rise above the quality of teachers it has. If this is so, what are the implications of sharing and selling available vacancies in the employment of teachers into the Akwa Ibom State Secondary Education Board (SSEB)? The malpractice excludes brilliant Akwa Ibom indigenes, who would have imparted knowledge to the young ones, from contributing their quota to the development of the state. There are very many Akwa Ibom indigenes that made 2:1 (Second Class Upper Division) in their different areas of learning. But since they do not have godfathers to include them in their slots or afford N300, 000.00 to pay for the available slot, they cannot gain employment so as to give part of what they have to their brothers and sisters. On the contrary, it opens a vista for those who do not have passion for the job and are not qualified for the job to be employed as teachers. Now, it is not uncommon to see or hear that some teachers in the state cannot construct simple sentences devoid of errors of different kinds. Very many of them cannot write compositions. It logically follows that if some of these teachers cannot speak and write good English, what is the fate of the students taught by such teachers? The situation is peculiar to other subjects. Because of sharing and selling of job vacancies in Akwa Ibom State, sometimes graduates of certain disciplines are asked to teach subjects that do not have direct bearing with what they read in either the polytechnic or university. For instance what subject can a graduate of philosophy, psychology, etc teach at the secondary school level? Education sector is a specialized area that requires professionals who have been trained in the arts and science of teaching the children for effective and efficient performance. Teachers are trained in different subject areas for the above reasons. Gone are the days professional teachers were in short supply. Today, there are many students who go to the university and colleges of education to read courses in education, thereby supplying, in large quantity, the number of teachers needed in different subject areas in both primary and secondary schools in the state. So for those entrusted with the duty of selecting qualified teachers for the state education system, to be sentimental is a disservice to them, Akwa Ibom State and the whole society. Even if they will send their wards to private schools, their relations will attend public schools where the mediocre they employed will teach them. This is why concerned Akwa Ibom people are pleading with Governor Godswill Akpabio to inject quality control system into teachers’ employment in the state. The governor is known for high quality taste in the area of project execution. Different people within and outside the state have commended him for the standard quality of projects he has executed in the state. Why has he failed to entrench such standard in the area of human capital development in Akwa Ibom State so that the state can compete favourably with her counterparts in the country? Teaching job should not be a dumping ground for those without passion for it. It is on this premise that the governor is asked to prevail on the contractors who handle teachers’ recruitment exercise for the selection of teachers into the state secondary education board to mark the tests and publish the results before selecting successful candidates. The governor should also discourage the act of sharing and selling job vacancies in the state to avoid denying poor Akwa Ibom indigenes their fundamental right of gaining employment in their own state. This action is a clear indication that if it were possible, the vacancies would have been sold to non Akwa Ibomites whom perhaps can afford to pay N500, 000.00.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 22:36:04 +0000
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