Edo State Government has said it will not tolerate interference by highly placed and influential people in the on-going redistribution and transfer of primary school teachers by the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (Edo SUBEB).
In a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie Esq., the state government said the on-going transfer of teachers in public primary schools was to check the incidence of excess teachers in urban areas, while schools in semi-urban and rural areas are understaffed.
Ogie noted, “This is to inform all public primary school teachers, basic education stakeholders and the general public that the on-going redistribution and transfer of teachers across the state by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), has become a necessity in order to ensure that all Public Primary Schools Teachers do not congregate in urban schools, leading to excess teachers, while the semi-urban and rural Schools are wholly understaffed.
He advised highly placed and influential people in society to desist from lobbying for teachers who have been transferred to be returned back to urban areas, noting, “It is pertinent to state here that, by rule, teachers are to be transferred every few years, hence government cannot accommodate the voluminous requests to revise these transfers already carried out.”
He insisted that the redistribution of teachers was done to further strengthen the basic education sub-sector, of which Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) is a major tool in the re-enactment of basic education in Edo State.
Ogie urged stakeholders in the sector to support the state government’s reforms by allowing the system being built to work for the overall long-term benefit of people.
He said, “The monthly wage bill of all public primary school teachers in the state is N1.2 billion, which is a significant recurrent expenditure of the government. As a result of this huge obligation of government, it is imperative that teachers receiving a monthly salary are actually in all public primary schools spread across the state and teaching pupils, hence the on-going redistribution and transfers of teachers.”
