Many teachers in public secondary schools in Delta, have rejected employment by Christian missions, who have taken over management of 40 schools in the state.
The teachers, numbering more than 15,000, including those whose schools were handed over to the missions by the state government, opted to remain in government’s service.
Prof. Muoboghare, Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education in the state, confirmed this to the newsmen, in an interview in Asaba.
The return of the 40 schools to their former mission owners was announced by the state government in September, 2011 while a formal handover of the schools was done in October by Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The Governor said at the handing over ceremony, that all secondary school teachers in the state, including those in the affected schools, had the option of remaining in public service or joining the missions’ schools administrators.
According to Muoboghare, rather than take up employment with the new owners of the affected schools, the teachers opted for transfer to other public schools in the state.
“We have more than 15,000 teachers in our secondary schools and now that none is willing to join the missions, it simply means that we now have surplus teachers for the remaining schools.
“In a few days, there will be mass transfer, especially to rural schools, which before now, lacked teachers because people were rejecting posting to villages.”
He added that “this time, nobody will resist posting and get away with it. If you are posted to a station and in three days, you fail to report there, you will be deemed to have resigned from service”.
He disclosed that the missions shad begun preparation for their schools to take off in next academic session and had commenced exercises for admitting class one students into the Junior Secondary Schools and employment of teachers.
The commissioner said the period between when the schools were handed over and when they would take off in September, was being used by the missions to design curriculum for the schools.
He said the period was also used by the new owners of the schools to source for teachers and principals, including security screening of their personalities and certificates.
“With the problems of take-off, the government will continue to supervise the activities in the schools to ensure that standards are desirable and to also know when there are problems.”
Among the returned schools, the Catholic mission has 27; Anglican Communion, eight; four for the Baptist mission and one to African Church community.?