Prince Dapo Abiodun, Governor of Ogun State, has approved the immediate hiring of 1000 Ogun Teach Interns to commemorate World Teachers’ Day this year.
The gesture is intended to enhance the pupil-teacher ratio and fill open positions in public schools.
The governor also approved the addition of 2,000 additional OGUNTEACh applicants to the previously engaged 2000 interns, as well as the awarding of a bungalow and cash rewards to teachers who have done the State proud while doing their tasks.
Prince Abiodun made the announcement at the 2023 World Teachers’ Day event, which was hosted at the Oba’s Complex in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, with the topic “The Teachers We Need for Education We Want; the Global Imperative to Reverse Teachers Shortage.”
The governor stated that the new teachers’ appointments are effective immediately and that the administration is doing everything necessary to boost the number of teachers.
He said:
“It is my great joy to announce to you that Ogun State will be having an education summit soonest, for cross-fertilizing ideas by critical stakeholders in the sector, to proffer workable solutions to how to improve our education sector beyond this point and institutionalize the desired excellence in all our schools in line with the dreams of our founding fathers.
“To complement this initiative, we will be inaugurating an education trust fund to fund education infrastructure across the various levels. Also, a special committee on the rehabilitation of public schools to complement SUBEB’s interventions will be inaugurated soon.”
The governor emphasized his administration’s high priority on the welfare and well-being of teachers, even as it continues to prioritize education as the first line charge in expenditure for the state and all local governments in order to close the sector’s deficit.
Governor Abiodun stated that his administration has begun training 750 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in a new teaching pedagogy called PSI-PMI to combat the conventional approach to teaching, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
The governor said he has instructed the distribution of promotion letters for 2021-2022, two months of leave bonuses for public servants, and N10,000.00 payments to all public servants and pensioners in the state to motivate teachers to perform maximally.
“Our government also procured and installed the Education Management Information System (EMIS) equipment and gadgets to aid data collection, collation, and analysis in the education sector across the 20 LGEAs, among many interventions to prepare our students to compete with their peers around the world and also provide an enabling and conducive working environment for our teachers to contribute their best.”
The governor stressed that, as a responsive administration, it is convinced of the necessity to improve the situation of teachers in order to compensate for their selfless contributions to the upliftment of society, because the future of the children is dependent on the level and quality of their production.
While emphasizing the importance of addressing the teacher shortage in Nigeria’s education sector and that of Sub-Saharan Africa, the governor stated that 69 million teachers, mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa, are required to achieve universal basic education by 2030, with an additional 24.4 million teachers in primary education and some 44.4 million teachers in secondary education required to achieve this goal.
“According to the data unveiled for 2022 World Teachers’ Day, 5.4 million teachers are needed at the primary level in sub-Saharan Africa and 11.1 million teachers at the secondary level if we are to achieve the targets set by the 2030 Agenda,” he stated.
Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Science, and Technology, praised teachers as great patriots in the business of molding young minds in his welcoming address, thanking them for their efforts in sustaining the State’s educational quality.
In his goodwill message, the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Abiodun Akinola, praised Governor Abiodun for continuing the annual event and for sustaining the Excellency Awards for best teachers and school administrators in the state, while also urging the government to hire more teachers to relieve the workload of the current ones.
Comrade Felix Agbesanwa, State Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUS), stated that Nigeria and the world at large are facing an unprecedented shortage of teachers, and that the purpose of this year’s celebration was to stop the decline in the number of teachers and to showcase practices that would attract, retain, and motivate those in the teaching profession.
Agbesanwa commended the Governor for implementing five years of promotion in four years for workers in the state, as well as abolishing all levies in schools and initiating various policies and interventions through the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology aimed at increasing students’ Higher Education Potential in the state.
The distribution of keys to Mr. Akeem Badru, the first African recipient of the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher’s Award, and Mr. Togbe Ganiyu, the best overall Teacher in public primary school from Egba Division, was one of the highlights of the celebration.
Mr. Amosun Temitope Olaoluwa received N2 million as the best teacher in the junior secondary school category from Remo, and Mr. Ganiyu Wasiu received N2 million as the best teacher in the senior secondary school category from Egba Division.
Ajayi Abosede was named the best primary school administrator in Egba division and received a cash prize of N1 million, Samza Omolara from Ijebu Division was named the best junior secondary school administrator, and Kusimo Oluseyi was named the best senior secondary school administrator in Egba division and received a cash prize of N1 million.
Baptist High School (Junior), Saje, Abeokuta, was crowned best public secondary school and received N7.5 million, followed by Remo Secondary School (Senior), Sagamu, which also received N7.5 million.
Angela Otabo of Egba Division won N500,000 for being the best teacher in the private school category.