To curb rural/urban migration that has led to the dearth of teachers in the rural areas, the deputy governor of Delta State, Sir Monday Onyeme, has tasked chairmen of local government councils to recruit teachers from communities where their services are required.
Onyeme gave the charge on Wednesday when members of the Ossissa Traditional Council of Chiefs, paid him a congratulatory visit at his office at Government House, Asaba.
The deputy governor stated that the call had become necessary following the observation that rural urban drift had impacted negatively on primary schools in the state.
He decried the situation where primary schools in urban centres were overstaffed, while those in rural areas had suffered greatly due to rural/urban migration.
“The employment of teachers in primary schools in the state will be given attention in this administration, but we must ensure that teachers are recruited from the communities where they come from and they should be ready to stay in where they are posted to.
“We want to also advise our people who are lobbying to be recruited as teachers in the current recruitment exercise that they should be ready to stay in the communities where they are posted to; a situation where everybody wants to be in the town and nobody wants to stay in the village is what is adding to lack of teachers in our communities.
“Schools in urban centres are overstaffed; a lot of teachers are sitting down doing nothing in those schools, but if you go to the village schools, they are begging for teachers,” Onyeme said.
He assured Deltans that the Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori-led administration was committed to the development of the state in the area of road construction, provision of health care facilities, electricity and other social amenities.
The chairman, Ossissa Traditional Council of Chiefs, High Chief Joseph Osakwe, described Sir Monday Onyeme as the pride of Ndokwa Nation.
Osakwe, whose address was read by High Chief J.E. Adibeli, said, ‘we strongly believe that going by your track record of giving succor to the needy, even when you were not a Deputy Governor, some of these problems, if not all would be solved now that you are a Deputy Governor.”
