Commissioner for Education in Cross River State, Senator Stephen Odey, has said that a minimum of 20,000 teachers are required to address shortage of teaching staff in public schools across the state.
The commissioner, who disclosed this during a press briefing in Calabar on Tuesday, said that Governor Bassey Otu led administration had embarked on massive employment of teachers to bridge the gap.
He noted that due to paucity of funds, the employment will be carried out in phases.
The commissioner further noted that there were several ongoing reforms to revamp the education in the state.
Odey said: “We are determined to reform the sector holistically because we want to make the state a reference point in education sector among commity of states.
“There is already a memo before the governor for us to start with the employment of 6,000 teachers.
“We discovered that in many schools, especially in the rural area, there are only two teachers and this is not how we intend to be the best in the country.
“The money the government paid as fee for West Africa School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) for students in the state will amount to nothing without teachers to teach them.
Odey disclosed that priority will be given to the employment of teachers in their catchment areas as the state was not buoyant enough to pay peculiar allowances to teachers in rural areas.
Speaking on the payment of WASCE fee, Odey dispelled the rumour that the 16,301 list was padded.
He said rather, the list was not exhaustive as some schools that submitted late were not captured.
“The only issue that arose from the list was that we found out that some names were duplicated during compilation which brought the figure to about 16,287 students.
“At that, we had students from about 20 schools that were not included because of late submission. For instance, a particular school in Boki had over a thousand students not included.
“For the avoidance of doubt, principals who were found not to have been diligent in their duty had been sanctioned.
“About 37 of them are in this category and are going to be demoted to the classrooms.”
The commissioner further said that part of the reform is to ensure uniformity in school system in the state as well as go after illegal schools.
On school uniformity, he said: “Upon resumption in office, I discovered that schools across the state, both public and private, operate different school calendars.
“We have been able to streamline this to a large extent and still working to ensure all-around compliance across the state.”
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