The Positive Agenda Nigeria has expressed its displeasure over the ongoing teaching service recruitment in Osun State. According to the group, it is not ideal for Osun State government under the leadership of Governor Gboyega Oyetola through assigned government’s ministry and agency to ask applicants for payment of N3,000 before they could be recruited into the State Teaching Service.
In a press release signed by one of the conveners of the organisation, Rasheed Adebiyi, PAN says “its attention has been drawn to the attempts of the Osun State Government to recruit teachers to fill in vacancies that exist in the teaching service commission of the state. It was also learnt that the recruitment is in line with the government’s recent reversal of the education policy hitherto put in place by the immediate past administration in the state.”
“While the organization has commended the attempt to recruit new teachers into the employ of the state, it has found grossly exploitative and highly unacceptable an application fee attached to the recruitment exercise. We found it unthinkable that candidates, who are indigenes of Osun are expected to pay a sum of N3,000 to the coffers of the state government before they could be allowed to submit their applications for employment into the public service of the state.
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“Our scenario analysis has shown that Osun State government is likely to recoup millions of naira if 50,000 (Scenario A), 100,000 (Scenario B), 150,000 (Scenario C) and 200,000 (Scenario D) forms are sold to the prospective applicants. This analysis was carried out in line with the previous media reports that indicated thousands of applicants applied for previous government job vacancies in the State.
“The Positive Agenda Nigeria, as a good and open governance civil society organization considers this action from the All Progressives Congress led government as an exploitation of the huge number of unemployed youths. This implies that those who are brilliant and capable but who do not have the means are automatically exempted. For the avoidance of doubt, asking the candidates, many of whom would have their monies lost as the available slots are not even up to N3,000, is callous. It shows the insensitivity on the part of government to have wanted the jobless youth to pay to apply.”
The group, which recently released a civic engagement report that spurred the government officials to initiate Apero, a traditional civic engagement programme held recently, asks “what would happen to the monies paid by the candidates whose applications are not eventually considered?”
The group urges the government to stop the extortion in the name of application fees being charged by the ministry of education. “This action if allowed to continue would be a dent on the recent improvement of the governor’s engagement with the people. By doing this, we believe the government through Governor Gboyega Oyetola would leave up to the expectation of the citizens who expect good governance at all times.”