TESCOM - NO fewer than 110, 181 applicants are jostling for 2000 vacancies in the Ondo State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) in the on-going recruitment exercise being carried out by the state government, sources within the commission disclosed to The Guardian yesterday.
Two weeks ago, the state government through the commission commenced the process of filling the vacancies which had gone to such an unbearable level that most of the public secondary schools in the state are facing acute shortage of personnel.
According to the Chairman of the commission, Dr. Bakkita Bello, the commission got the approval of Governor Olusegun Mimiko to recruit 2000 personnel made up of 1500 university-trained teachers, 200 holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE) and 300 non-teaching staff.
Giving a breakdown of the number of applicants who applied through the internet portal of the commission, a source said 76,895 applied for teaching jobs while 33,286 applied for non-teaching even as it was disclosed that core subjects would get priority in the exercise.
The applicants who were made to supply information, particularly on their states and local government origins with letters of attestation from known community leaders, are expected to write a written test after being shortlisted.
Earlier on, the TESCOM boss had told The Guardian that the recruitment exercise was part of the efforts of the state government to reposition its teaching force to deliver maximally in the education of students of the state public secondary schools.
He pointed to other areas of government intervention to include prompt e-payment of salaries of teachers "even before the governor got his own", payment of special allowances for teachers in difficult and rural terrains, regular payment of leave bonuses and other allowances, regular annual promotions "involving as much as 4,000 at a time" and encouragement of improvement through in-service training, study leave and others.
Bello, a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly also disclosed that the state government also appoints teachers into political positions such as Commissioners and Tutors-General which is equivalent to the position of Permanent Secretary and that recently 5,000 plots of lands were allocated to them to encourage people to take up teaching profession.
He however debunked the rumour from the opposition that the government was using the recruitment exercise to make money saying "the whole process is free and the commission is not taking any money from any applicant. That is why we had to stop the demand for letters of attestation from community leaders because we discovered that applicants are being made to pay for the letters in some areas."
Source: Guardian