Bayelsa: Commissioner Suspends Absentee Principal, Offers ‘Automatic Employment’ to ‘Casual’ Teacher

There was drama in Bayelsa State on Monday following the suprise visit by the state commissioner of Education, and other top ministry officials, to schools located in rural areas of Yenagoa Local Government Area to inspect facilities as well as teaching and learning in the schools.

The tour, which was led by the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Gentle E. Emelah, and the permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr Okene Simon-Peter to four schools led to the discovery that most of the teachers, heads of schools and principals were engaged in alleged truancy.

Also on the Education commissioner’s delegation were Mr Faith Ogbara, Head of Procurement at the ministry, Mr Oweilayefa Akuna, Acting Director of Secondary, and technical partners of the Bayelsa Prime Project.

When the delegation arrived at the Community Secondary School Ikolo, at about 9:30am, no teacher was found on duty, and it was confirmed by students that this had been the situation in the last few weeks.

The commissioner, Dr Emelah, expressed displeasure with the negative report as the school facility had been abandoned by the principal and staff for weeks, describing it as a disservice to the state.

In reaction, the Education commissioner pronounced the immediate suspension of the principal, Mr Moses Oguro Monday, for three months without salary indefinitely for gross negligence and misconduct.

In a related development, Mr Agah Somfieme, a casual Mathematics teacher found on duty was automatically offered employment by the commissioner. Mr Somfieme had been a casual teacher since 2017 with good record of attendance as testified by the students.

Dr Emelah directed all teachers of CSS Ikolo to report to the Ministry of Education on Wednesday 12 June, 2024 for sanctions describing the level of neglect as unacceptable even when a befitting Teachers quarters have been provided by government to serve the teachers accommodation needs.

At Bomoundi-gbene and Bebelebiri, Dr Emelah visited Community Primary School Bomoundi-gbene and St Andrew Pimary School Bebelebiri. He charged the head teachers to work assiduously hard to improve the enrollment of pupils to ensure no child is out of school in their communities during learning hour.

At Community Secondary School Yenaka where the exercise terminated, the commissioner frowned at reports of some truant teachers threatening government officials who cautioned them on their absence from school.

Stating emphatically, that moving forward, any report of such will not be treated lightly by government. “The inspection exercise is not to witch-hunt any teacher but everybody should do the right thing”, he added.

Dr Emelah used the medium to charge inspectors of the Post Primary Schools Board (PPSB) and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to live up to expectation as government will not condone any form of truancy from teachers moving forward.

Observations made by the commissioner at some schools visited ranged from inadequate chairs and dilapidated structures which he assured the Prosperity Government will act swiftly by providing more chairs where needed and carry out renovations where needed.