Ondo State Government has declared that the promotion of the public school teachers would henceforth be tied and based on the academic performance of their students.

The Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Hon. Victor Olabimtan, who stated this, said promotion of teachers will no longer be business as usual.

While meeting with the Education Secretaries from the 18 Local Government Areas of the state, Olabimtan disclosed that the state government would soon introduce performance bonds for teachers of public primary schools where promotion will be based on the academic performance of students.

He maintained that stiffer punishment will be put in place for teachers who abscond from their duty posts while he said there would be monitoring and supervision of academic activities in schools.

According to him, the directives steps became necessary to enhance better performance of pupils in public schools in the Common Entrance Examination into Public Secondary Schools in the State.

He expressed the state government’s disappointment over the level of performance of the pupils, despite providing an enabling environment for good performance and employment of teachers but said promotion of teachers on performance basis will commence from next year.

“Consequently from the next year no teacher will be promoted to the next grade levels especially from 13 and above without empirical evidence that the wards under him or her performed very well in their examinations”

Olabimtan said the state government cannot continue to pretend as if all is well with the system, lay by, and gloss over the current performance of pupils in Public Schools for a state in which education is its main industry.

“Considering the state government’s huge investment in the basic education sector through the construction and renovation of over 900 schools and the distribution of free instructional material to pupils, the government expects better delivery from teachers and performance from pupils in all examinations,” he said.

He advised the Education Secretaries and Head Teachers to live up to expectations and said the state government would not hesitate to deal with anybody, no matter how highly placed, trying to sabotage the established high-performance standard in Education the State is known for.

He, however, maintained that as from next year there is not going to be automatic promotion for any teacher in our Public Primary Schools, as a way of improving the performance of pupils at both internal and external examinations in all Public Schools in the state.

He said all promotions, especially from grade 13 and above, would be subjected to performance evaluation by the Board and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology.

Olabimtan said the Board is going to invigorate its monitoring and supervisory mechanism by paying unscheduled visits to all the schools in the state to ensure teachers are in classes doing what they were employed to do at the beginning of this new session.

The SUBEB boss attributed the present level of performance of pupils in Public Primary schools to lack of discipline, dedication, truancy, and nonchalant attitudes on the part of some teachers and lack of monitoring by school administrators and Education Secretaries.

The Chairman warned teachers who are in the habit of absconding grin duties or engaging in selling and buying during school sessions to desist because anybody caught in the act will face the music.

According to him, there is credible information that some teachers come to school at will while others do not come at all but employ someone else to do their jobs while engaging in other activities at the detriment of students under their care, adding that some even traveled abroad without appropriate approval vowing that anybody caught will face the penalties.

He admonished the Education Secretaries as the head of each Local Government Education Authority Area, LGEA, and head teacher of various schools to be on top of their jobs as they will be held responsible for any lapses in their areas and schools.

While underscoring the need for Education Secretaries and Head Teachers to embark on a vigorous enrollment drive for pupils before the commencement of the new academic session in September to increase pupil population in their schools, he also directed the School Administrators to engage all the necessary stakeholders in the LGEAs like traditional rulers and their likes in the advocacy campaigns to achieve desire goal. (Nigerian Tribune)

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