IBayelsa Deputy Governor, Mr. Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, has warned public servants to take their duties seriously or face sanctions, including dismissal.
He made the warning while receiving a briefing from the Teachers Redeployment Committee headed by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Irorodamie Komonibo, at the Government House on Thursday in Yenagoa.
The committee, set up by the Deputy Governor, was tasked with collecting, classifying and analysing available data in order to equitably distribute teachers among all public primary schools in the eight local government areas.
Ewhrudjakpo, who described teaching as a serious task that requires commitment and dedication, said the government would not hesitate to deal decisively with absent and unserious teachers.
He stressed that a situation in which public employees refuse to go to work with impunity, but collect their monthly salaries without any hindrance, is counterproductive and anti-development.
Ewhrudjakpo stressed the need for workers to take responsibility and commitment to duty.
His words: “Now that this report is published, I will meet with the various schools and community leaders, possibly district by district, and give them the list of assigned teachers. They have to monitor the teachers.
“If any of them does not come to work for 15 days without any justifiable reason, they will not get paid for that month. If you do not come for 3 months, we will fire you.
“We cannot continue like this, believing that accountability is something that only the governor and lieutenant governor must observe and implement.
“We must know that society is not built only by the efforts of leaders, but also by the efforts of followers,” he said.
The deputy governor, who expressed gratitude to the committee for the thorough work done, said the report had vindicated his belief that the public primary school system in Bayelsa was mainly suffering from imbalance.
He assured that the present administration would implement all relevant and necessary recommendations contained in the committee’s report to enable the state government achieve its set goals in the education sector.
Komonibo recommended that the state government formulate and adopt a uniform roll of nominations to be used by all public primary schools in Bayelsa.
According to the committee, a standard and reliable roll call format has already been provided to schools to facilitate future teacher redeployment processes and verification exercises.
The Committee also stressed the need for the Government to closely monitor the incidences of frequent teacher attrition in order to address the problem of unequal distribution of teachers.
According to the report, out of a total of 4,037 teachers available for redeployment who were on schools’ nominal lists in May 2024, 2,405 were retained in their current schools.
“Around 966 were redistributed to schools within the local government areas where they teach, while 666 were relocated to other local government areas that need them.
“It is necessary to train officials working in educational bodies so that they are aware of the complexities of their destination.
“Redeployment and reallocation of teachers to ensure equity and justice in order to improve the proper and effective utilization of teachers in schools.
“Service records of all teachers must be updated to avoid errors. To achieve this, a comprehensive re-verification of all public primary school teachers is recommended for immediate action,” the committee added.
The Deputy Secretary of the Committee, Dr. Stella Ugolo, appealed to the government to ensure that the appointment and designation of school principals is done by the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to correct existing anomalies.
