Shortage of teachers hit Bayelsa community schools

The people of Amatu 2 Community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa, have appealed to the State government to come to their aid, saying that for the past three years, their children have not been attending classes both at the primary and secondary school level due to the unavailability of teaching staff and corps members.

While making the appeal in Ekeremor Town, Mr. Jerry Samasuode, a leader of the community, said they have written several petitions to the State Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board, and Post Primary Schools Board to draw the attention of government to their plight but no action has been taken for the past three years.

He said the situation is so bad that children of the community have forgotten their academic calendar as they don’t know when schools resume or close for holiday, and that they fear that if nothing is done urgently to save the situation their children may grow up to become problem to the society in the future.

Explaining further, he said “About five years ago corps members used to cover up for the unavailability of teaching staff but today they also abandoned us. Both the teaching staff and corps members that were posted to the community used to complain about distance and poor standard of living as excuses but today there is a road from Yenagoa to Ekeremor.

“So, today distance should not be an excuse. Concerning the issue of poor standard of living, the community-made efforts by providing accommodation, food, and stipends to encourage them even though that is not part of our responsibility. Yet, when they post them to our community, they will lobby officials to redeploy them to urban cities.

“Most of the teaching staff who work their redeployment to urban areas told us that they are doing so because the government does not pay them Rural Posting Allowances. Even at that, we made money available for them to cover up for that gap but they have refused to come to our community. Yet, they will say education is the bedrock of development.”