No fewer than 16,000 teachers in primary and secondary schools in Ekiti State will (on Monday) participate in the Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA), aimed at enhancing the capacity of teachers and improving students’ performance in the state.
This follows the decision of the government to go ahead with the assessment, in spite of threats by some teachers to boycott the exercise, coupled with the reported planned strike.
The assessment will hold in 39 designated centres across the 16 local government areas in the state.
The state government has however restated that the assessment is neither a ‘promotion examination’, nor aimed at sacking teachers who perform poorly. According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Yinka Oyebode, the Governor of the state, Dr kayode Fayemi has reassured the teachers that the assessment is not designed to sack anyone.
“The assessment is geared towards enhancing the capacity of the teachers and improving students performance. It will also help in designing trainings for the teachers in the bid to improve the standard of education in the state.”
“Adequate security arrangements have been made for those willing to participate in the assessment in all the designated centres, while other logistics have been put in place to ensure a hitch free exercise”, the statement added.
The statement said further that as government is not aware of any strike nor can understand the justification for such action, anyone who fails to show up for the assessment would be deemed to have deliberately opted out in defiance of the government directive on the TDNA..
“As far as the government is concerned, the assessment would hold. There is no strike, no industrial action was declared and no notice (usually 14 days notice) was given.”
Meanwhile, the state’s council of Obas as well as several prominent citizens of the state have faulted the negative attitude of the teachers to the assessment and urged them to comply with the government’s directives by participating in the exercise.
Chairman of the council of Obas, the Owa Ooye of Oke-Imesi, Oba Gbadebo Adedeji, said the traditional leaders endorse the government’s decision to assess the primary and secondary school teachers, urging the teachers to see the exercise as a measure aimed at improving the standard of education in the state and not an attempt to humiliate them.
The leadership of the state’s House of Assembly, on whose intervention, the TDNA was shifted from May 28th till June 4th, has also urged the teachers to go for the assessment, assuring them that government would not use the outcome to sack or humiliate any one of them.
The TDNA will be written by all the teachers in primary and secondary schools with the exemption of Principals and vice principals, as well as those who are due for retirement later in the year.
Other states that have conducted the TDNA include Lagos, Kwara, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Oyo.
Last modified: June 4, 2012
