As Government Replaces 1,201 Teachers SLTU Presses for More
Teacher replacement is one of the key responsibilities of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology supported by school authorities and the Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union. Over the years, the Ministry in a bid to clean-up teachers’ payroll that is believed to filled-up with ghost teachers, embarked on a verification exercise in the county. This exercise which was undertaken by the ministry in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union (SLTU) is believed to have yield dividend as the process unearthed many ghost teachers, schools and exposed educational administrators who in one way or the others compliment this unpatriotic act.
Irrespective of the affirmative steps taken by the Education Ministry, yet it is believed by education stakeholders that the delay in replacing teachers has its own minuses and one of it is the ineffective teaching and learning that is taken place in the educational system. This is so because; most of the teachers in the schools have not being paid for the past three to four years.
It is evident that efficiency of labour can be achieved in this situation when the necessary implements and the enabling environment are created for such. It is based on this hallmark and predicament of salaries of teachers that the Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union, whose purpose of creation is to seek the welfare of its members and professionally contributes to education’s development in the country, approached the government through negotiations for its ministry to replace over 2,000 teachers.
What the union makes of this, Davidson Kuyateh is the Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union (SLTU); he revealed to this medium that; the collaborative effort to clean-up the payroll is not only helpful to remove ghost teachers but has also identified that over 2,000 teachers are fit to be replaced. The Secretary General maintained: “with effective negotiations and persuasion, government has approved the replacement of 1,201 for May and June. And as a union, we appreciate the government’s effort by responding to the plights of our members but we are extremely concerned about the remaining ones,” he expressed with passion.
He further revealed that government in May replaced 878 teachers and in June of 2012, they replaced 148 in the Western Urban District of Freetown, 102 in Moyamba District and 73 in Bonthe, which gives a total number of 1,201 teachers replaced.
“I am very sure that the remaining teachers will be replaced shortly as the process is ongoing,” he concluded.
In optimism, Mohamed Conteh a teacher whose name has not appeared in any of the paying roll list said “I am appreciative of the strides taken by my union in persuading government to replace such number in two months. I am sure by the end of next month; this issue of teachers’ replacement will be a thing of the past”.
By Moses Lamin Kamara
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