Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, has given a new lease of life to education in Anambra State by presenting Letters of Appointment to 5,000 newly recruited teachers. The entire recruitment process was through a transparent and competitive process supervised by the State Ministry of Education. The competitive process of the recruitment has been described by multiform observers as being the most credible and transparent in recent times.

 

Governor Soludo presented the appointment letters to the recently recruited 5000 teachers in a televised grand ceremony on Friday, December 2, at the International Convention Centre, Awka.

 

The gathered teachers and their guests were full of praise for Governor Soludo for having faith in them as a continuation of his open demonstration of transparency and credibility in all sectors in Anambra State.

 

It was an occasion to savour as Governor Soludo shared ennobling company with the teachers because the governor sees himself, first and foremost, as a teacher having lectured for many years at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and in some other universities all over the world. Many educationists lauded Governor Soludo for his landmark innovative method of recruiting teachers credibly, transparently and competitively.

 

Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Professor (Mrs.) Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, who superintended all stages of the recruitment exercise basked in the glory of the moment, attesting to the fact that the process was quite challenging. She was steadfast in carrying out Governor Soludo’s mandate of making the exercise comprehensively transparent and credible. It needs to be recalled that following the dearth of teachers in schools as inherited by the administration on assumption of office, Governor Soludo took the immediate decision for the recruitment of 5,000 teachers.

 

According to the records, out of the 40,120 candidates who responded to the initial advertisement, 13,500 scaled through the first Computer Based Test (CBT) which had 60 percent as the cut-off mark. The supplementary test took the cut-off mark down to 55 percent, thereby adding additional 2000 candidates to the number scheduled for the last CBT. The last CBT was scheduled in six centres at a cut-off mark of 55 percent. The 8,120 successful candidates were scheduled for oral and written interviews. The successful candidates were determined by adding the last CBT scores and the oral/written interview scores, and dividing by simple average. The cut-off mark was set at 60 percent.

 

After the painstaking and rigorous exercise, the 5,000 teachers were selected strictly on merit. The Governor in his own words said “Anambra children deserve the best and I will not give to them what I will not give to my own children.”

 

The presentation of the appointment letters to the recruited 5000 teachers on Friday, December 2, at the International Convention Centre, Awka, was the climax of a job well done by Governor Soludo who amidst laud ovation assured them that they will receive their December salaries.