Verification: Edo teacher can’t read owncertificate

BENIN CITY — IT was drama, Tuesday, at the
venue of the verification of certificates of
primary school teachers in Edo State, as a
teacher in Asologun Primary School, Ikpoba
Okha Local Government Area of the state, Mrs.
Augusta Odemwinge could not read a sworn
affidavit she purportedly tendered as part of
her credentials.
The state governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole,
who paid an unscheduled visit to the state
Staff Training Centre, venue of the exercise,
said “if you can’t read, what do you teach the
pupils, what do you write on the board?”
Chairman of the state Nigeria Union of
Teachers, Mr. Patrick Ikosimi, who was also at
the screening to monitor the exercise, said
that the woman’s failure was “an
embarrassment.”
On arrival at the centre, the governor took
time to peruse some of the teacher’s
credentials and documents presented.
When Mrs. Odenwingie took her turn during
the exercise, the governor, who listened to her
defence, asked her to read the affidavit she
presented, but she stuttered, to the
consternation of everybody around.
Ikosimi, who described Mrs. Odemwingie’s
failure to read a document she presented as an
embarrassment, said the union was in tune
with the state government on the need to
sanitise the school system.
He said: “We are committed to partnering the
government to reposition education in the
state. What this teacher has just displayed is a
show of shame; it shows the decadence in the
education sector.
“As the chairman of NUT, I had written to the
governor that we are in total support of what
he is doing.
“He should properly involve the NUT, so that
together we can fish out the culprits, who are
not viable as far as the system is concerned,”
he said.