Rivers UBE Suspends 300 Teachers

No fewer than 300 teachers in the Rivers primary and junior secondary schools have been suspended for absenteeism, the Rivers Universal Basic Education Board said yesterday.

The board’s Executive Secretary, Mrs Nnenda Anwuri, told newsmen in Port Harcourt, that the suspension was effected in the current academic session.

Anwuri said the affected teachers would have their salaries stopped for three months to serve as a deterrent to other teachers, who might imbibe such habit.

The executive secretary said that the board had quality schools supervisors and as such would not take cases of indiscipline kindly.

Anwuri said the shortage of teachers in the state primary and junior secondary schools (JSS) would not snowball into 2013/2014 academic year, adding that the state government would recruit 13,000 teachers.

The executive secretary, however, said that the number would still not be enough, pointing out that most schools in rural communities had acute shortage of teachers.

She said that most of the schools had only about three to five teachers, a situation that led to mergers.

Anwuri said that the problem had already affected some pupils, adding that the children could not learn when teachers were not available.

She, however, said that schools in Port Harcourt had enough teachers and that the teachers to be recruited would be posted to rural communities.

Anwuri said that the teachers would be given orientation, especially the non-professionals ones and that there were procedures for effective teaching and evaluation of pupils’ performance.

The secretary also advised parents against thinking that education was government’s responsibility, and called on them to contribute their quota towards their children’s education.