On Thursday October 5, 2017, on the event of World Teachers’ Day in Ondo, the NUT chairman Mr Oladele Amoko made a disturbing revelation while presenting his speech at the event.

He said the Ondo state government has not recruited teachers for primary and secondary schools in 10 years.

Speaking at the event which held in Akure he said, “some primary schools, especially in rural and coastal areas, had only one teacher in a school with over 200 pupils. In such a situation, only one teacher was compelled to teach primaries one to six”.

The scenario explained above by Amoko is a common scene in many states of the federation as it relates to educational development. In some states, parents have taken over the day-to-day running of schools for the sake of their children. After paying school fees, they recruit teachers for the schools, they pay the teachers and even renovate the school as the government have abandoned them to their fate.

This has gradually depleted the standard of education in the affected state as teachers are lacking the necessary motivation needed for the execution of their job. The revelations made by the NUT chairman have not been replied to by the state government as at the time of writing this.

That such exist in a state which was the pivot of educational development in the Southwest is one that should be given the necessary attention.

In the next one year, more than 1,000 teachers will retire from primary schools in the state, while many others will be retiring from the secondary section too. These teachers at the moment are not receiving salaries as at when due and, provisions have not been made for their replacement which is a capital-intensive activity.

Despite all these inadequacies and the plethora of dilapidated structures existing in schools across the state, the Ondo State government is more concerned in satisfying politicians with five hundred and eighteen million Naira cars (N518,000,000).

Lest we forget, these legislators campaigned on the premise of offering themselves as servants to the people of the state. Why they are now part of those depleting the scarce resources of the state is a reverse order of their promise.

The Ondo State government must give the necessary attention to education in the state and halt the drift in the sector, rather than expending funds to benefit a selected few to the detriment of millions of citizens of Ondo.

Editor