Delta State government has been urged to absorb the community teachers in the various Ijaw speaking riverine areas. The special teachers are placed on monthly stipend by their communities for filling the gap of inadequate number of teachers as a result of lack of interest to stay in the communities by government teachers.
According to representatives of the concerned riverine communities many schools in the riverine communities do not have more than two or three teachers who were employed by the state government.
Speaking during a peaceful protest in Asaba, president of Ijaw Elite Forum (IEF) Comrade Francis Ganagana stated that the reason for the peaceful demonstration was to improve the education standards in riverine communities.
Ganagana decried the dearth of teaching staff in riverine communities, saying that in most schools in urban areas there were over 130 teachers in a school yet no one principal and a teacher could be seen in riverine areas.
He said the call for government to employ the community teachers that were being paid by the PTA was imperative in order to improve standard of education in the areas.
“Teachers in the riverine areas were competent and well-qualified. They understood the terrain much better,” he added.
Addressing the protesters on behalf of the state government, the chairman of Post Primary Education Board (PPEB), Chief Christiana Etaluku explained that she had already informed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on the importance of considering community teachers in the recruitment exercise.
“Upon governor’s approval to her suggestion, l immediately told principals in riverine communities to compile and forward the names of their community teachers and the subjects they were teaching for them to be included among those to be employed,” she said.
While commending them for the peaceful nature of the protest, Etaluku said that what they had done showed that they had the interest of their communities at heart even as she affirmed that such community teachers needed to be compensated in the employment of teachers.
Etaluku, who assured them that the board would intensify monitoring of teachers in riverine areas as part of strategy to ensure that teachers in the areas took their job seriously, advised them to abstain from encouraging their children to indulge in examination malpractice.
Other representatives of the concerned Ijaw riverine communities include the chairman of Tamigbe community, Mr Stephen Akameyai Port Harcourt, chairman of Esanma community in Bomadi local government area, Barr Theophilus Akpoebimone Omoro and their counterpart in charge of Bulu-Elebiri community, Patani local government area, Comrade Derek Edih and Ogiagbene, Okoloba and Ogo-Eze communities among others.
They called on the state government to consider their community teachers and ensure they were incorporated into the state workforce. According to them, for the state government to impact positively on the children of riverine communities in the area of its educational policy, government needs to employ the community teachers.
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