The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students on Sunday berated Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke for deploying 1,750 untrained youths as teachers.
Adeleke had approved the deployment of 1,750 Imole Youth Corps members to schools due to financial constraints that delayed a planned mass recruitment of teachers for primary and secondary schools across the state.
NANS Southwest (Zone D), through its Secretary General, Comrade Oluwole Aboke, expressed disappointment in a statement over the conversion of a temporary civic engagement initiative into a teachers’ recruitment exercise. He said the decision undermined the integrity of the teaching profession.
Aboke added: “Teaching profession requires passion, proper training, certification, and ongoing professional development, none of which were the original prerequisites for Imole Youth Corps. The failed teachers’ recruitment exercise remains a painful betrayal. Thousands of qualified young graduates paid to apply for the previously advertised Osun teachers’ recruitment, went through screening processes, and waited in high hopes, only to be ignored and replaced with a politically-motivated scheme.”
He admonished that “government must prioritise proper recruitment, not political redeployment. Education cannot and should not be compromised.”
NANS demanded that the Adeleke-led administration immediately begin a transparent recruitment process for qualified and certified teachers based on merit rather than patronage or political convenience.
“We will not stand idle. We call on education stakeholders, parents, professional education bodies, and civil society groups to join us in rejecting any shortcuts that undermine the value of education. Osun students will not be guinea pigs in the name of cost-saving measures.”