For engaging in extortion and other unauthorised conducts, the Oyo State government has ordered the immediate suspension of 13 primary school headteachers, two assistant headteachers and a classroom teacher.
Apart from illegal collection of fees from pupils, the suspended teachers were also found culpable of insubordination and refusal to comply with posting instructions.
Executive chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Nureni Adeniran, took the action following an inspection tour to some schools in Ibadan, the state capital, on Monday. According to Adeniran, the government would not tolerate what he described as gross indiscipline among teachers in the state.
He noted that the board suspended the erring teachers due to established facts met on the ground at the various schools visited, and would be made to face a disciplinary committee set up the government.
The committee, he explained, has been mandated to ensure a thorough investigation into the allegations and give all concerned fair hearing.
It would be recalled that the Oyo State government, after announcing free education in May 2019, approved the payment of N526 million as running grants to primary and secondary schools for the first term of 2019/2020 session.
The schools are expected to submit records of disbursements to the state government at the end of each term.
The SUBEB chairman said: “It was during our tour of schools that we discovered the failure of some teachers to comply with posting instructions, while some of them were collecting illegal money from the pupils, despite reiteration of the free education policy of this administration.”
“So far, we have discovered that some saboteurs are among the teachers, who are flouting the state government’s directives and pulling down our efforts to sanitise the teaching system in the state.”
Adeniran described the acts of the teachers as unruly, adding that the government will constitute a standing disciplinary committee to handle such misdemeanours.
“We discovered that the absence of supervision and monitoring of educational activities in the state has given so much room for impunity and indiscipline. We will not allow this to happen henceforth,” he added.
Speaking further, he said: “This would serve as a deterrent to saboteurs among the headteachers. They should know henceforth, that the state government will not tolerate indiscipline.”
According to him, the government’s decision to put a stop to quackery and indiscipline in the teaching profession still stands, adding that recalcitrant teachers must desist from illegal acts.
He assured that the Governor Seyi Makinde-led government would not relent in creating conducive teaching environment for teachers, through the provision of infrastructure, prompt payment of running grants and salaries.
Adeniran warned the teachers not to take the administration’s compassion for timidity.
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