By Chimezie Anaso
Gov. Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra said that no fewer than 1,000 teachers in the state were relieved of their appointments with the state government because they were employed in a hazy manner.
The governor stated that the affected persons thereby remained unqualified for the job.
Soludo, who made the clarification in a statement signed by Mr Chris Aburime, his Press Secretary, on Thursday, said that no qualified teacher was sacked by the government.
Soludo said that the termination of the appointments was in line with his administration’s effort at repositioning the education sector according to standard practice.
The statement said: “the attention of the Governor has been drawn to publications on protest by Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) teachers, purportedly converted to permanent staff in Anambra schools.
“The protesters, who barricaded the entrance of the state House of Assembly, displayed placards with various inscriptions, claiming to have been engaged by the state government before the termination of their jobs.
“For the avoidance of doubt, no qualified teacher in the state’s school system has been relieved of his/her appointment.
“The affected PTA teachers who were “converted” to the school system in the last days of the last administration in irregular, hazy circumstances.
“They were only asked to regularise their employment with the government by taking part in the online teachers’ recruitment test.
“The idea is to ensure that only those with requisite qualifications, proven capacity and commensurate experiences are recruited into the system.
“At all times, Prof. Soludo means well for the good people of Anambra State and will stop at nothing in giving them the best, education inclusive.”
Some of the affected teachers said they were duly employed and issued appointment letters by the last administration in November 2021 but were sacked in April 2022.
They said they had served Anambra education school system for between two years and seven years as Parents/Teachers’ Association (PTA) teachers.
They argued that if they could be engaged in that capacity, they should also be worthy of regularised employment.
The sacked teachers said it was unfair to sack them unceremoniously after working for about seven months without pay and called on the governor to kindly reinstate them.
The state government had advertised 5,000 vacancies in the Education and Health sectors, in which no fewer than 31,800 were shortlisted for Computer Based Test.
The online examination is scheduled to hold on June 11.(NAN)