NO fewer than 800 Primary school teachers in Ogun State have been alleged to have engaged in fraudulent means of securing teaching appointment with the state government and are scheduled for dismissal and possible prosecution.
Most of the affected culprits were alleged to have used fake certificates in securing their appointments.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Segun Odubela who spoke on the issue in Abeokuta Friday disclosed that the culprits' fate, which might include possible prosecution, would be sealed on Monday.
In an effort to lay a solid foundation for qualitative education in the State, the Governor Ibikunle Amosun's administration engaged a consulting firm, CITC to audit all the primary school teachers in the state to determine whether all of them are qualified for their positions, about two months ago. The startling revelation came out of the consulting firm's report submitted to Odubela
"An alarming number of teachers have been discovered to not only possess fake certificates but also engaged in various irregularities with which they were offered jobs in the public schools throughout the 20 Local Government Areas of the state," Odubela told journalists.
He stated that the exercise was in line with the government's commitment to a "truly affordable qualitative education aimed at tackling what appears to be an age-old problem that affects the future of an estimated 450, 000 students in the State's public schools.
According to the report total of 223 teachers failed to show up for the screening exercise while some horriedly resigned.
"Also, cases of 21 birth certificate forgeries were detected just as a case of a teacher who gave four different dates of birth, including one that showed that he would have commenced primary school four years before his birth were discovered", the report indicated.
A total of 527 teachers were also identified as having engaged in "shady practices."
A top official of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) who spoke on condition of anonymity said there were strong indications that the 800 figure earlier identified would rise after the consulting firm had submitted its final report.
The source disclosed that out of the 19, 146 teachers "on agency's payroll", only 69 percent were able to prove during the screening exercise that they were eligible to teach, adding: "The remaining 31 percent could not be confirmed. The latter category had presented statements of results and or letters of attestation, some of which were clear forgeries."
The SUBEB official stated: "These worrying statistics, which were unearthed during an exercise which was initially expected to be just for two weeks across only ten locations in the state had caused the state government to commission a secondary review which entailed contacting the institutions directly to confirm those who had indeed graduated as claimed."
During the exercise, the consultants contacted over 62 universities and colleges and went as far as Gombe, Ilorin, Abuja and Kaduna States to confirm the validity of attestation letters and statements of results presented by the teachers, the source said, adding "In one case, a list of 620 purported graduates from a single institution resulted in just 484 confirmations".
He explained: "This means that 136 teachers who claim to have graduated from that institution had presented dubious documents."
Odubela in an interview said the exercise "Is about quality assurance of our human capital. All our investments to provide affordable quality education will only yield result if we have well qualified and motivated teachers in our classrooms."
Chairman of SUBEB, Alhaji Mufutau Ajibola said the exercise would add impetus to the concerted efforts by the state government to rebuild the decayed education sector.
Sam Idowu, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) said the union was in support of the government's effort to sanitize the teaching profession, describing those who did not turn up for the screening as those who have been giving the profession a bad name.
