•Report by Halimah Olamide
The governor of Anambra state, Chukwuma Soludo, on Friday presented appointment letters to 5,000 newly recruited teachers in the state.
Soludo, while presenting appointment letters to no fewer than 5,000 newly recruited teachers in Awka said that the future of youths of Anambra lie in the hand of teachers.
The governor said the issuance of the appointment letters was in fulfillment of one of the components of his manifesto which was repositioning the education sector for quality manpower development.
“Today, we are keeping one of our promises; we promised to position Anambra as a centre of excellence for human capital development and proactively leapfrog our students/youths as Africa’s digital tribe.
“We have come to end the era of schools without teachers in our primary and secondary schools, with the recruitment and deployment of 5,000 new teachers.
“It marks yet another milestone in Anambra’s bold march towards a liveable and prosperous smart mega city, one that is the preferred destination to live, learn, work, invest, relax and enjoy.
“My fellow teachers, the future of our children and the next generation is in your hands. Anambra, the Light of the Nation, is known for excellence,” he said.
Soludo said he was happy with the process of the recruitment but pointed out that no exercise of such magnitude would go without some complaints.
He said it was a near perfect process which was designed from the outset to be unique, transparent with integrity.
” My instruction was that only merit can get anyone a placement in the recruitment exercise, the phenomenon of well-placed persons being given “slots” to nominate candidates for recruitment should never happen.
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“To demonstrate my commitment to this, I instructed that even if I were to give them any name(s) for employment, they should throw such away.
“Teaching is not just a job, it is a vocation and no one should be employed as a teacher on any consideration other than merit.
“We should never in good conscience sacrifice the future of a generation on the altar of favoritism, and state of origin was not a disqualifying factor.
“Our children need the best teachers irrespective of where they come from,” he said.
The governor congratulated the newly recruited teachers including candidates from the Parents Teachers Association teachers for being among the best out of the over 40,000 applicants.
He said those without prior teaching qualification would be made to pass through intensive training which would serve as Anambra’s teacher certification standard.
“Let me suggest that educating our next generation is our collective responsibility, Public-Community- Private Partnership (PCPP) is the winning model for the future,” he said.