EKITI State Deputy Governor, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, has assured teachers that the Kayode Fayemi administration will not allow them to suffer under any condition.
Egbeyemi said the era in which teachers are owed arrears of salaries and abandoned to suffer in hunger is over as government will give priority to their welfare.
In a statement signed by his Special Assistant (Media), Odunayo Ogunmola, Egbeyemi regretted that many teachers abandoned their duty posts at the peak of hunger and misery allegedly inflicted on them by the immediate past administration in the state.
The deputy governor who spoke on Thursday while playing host to Education Secretaries in all the 16 Local Government Areas also assured that government was working to clear all the arrears of salaries owed teachers and other civil servants.
Egbeyemi opined that irregular and non-payment of salaries by the last administration contributed to the fall of education in the state.
According to him, the Fayemi administration will take care of teachers and provide them with an environment conducive to performing and lifting the standard of education in the state.
He urged teachers in the state to give their loyalty and support to Governor Kayode Fayemi saying “the governor is solidly behind teachers and you should reciprocate by doing your job very well.”
Egbeyemi said the Education Secretaries have been empowered to carry out reforms in the areas urging them to do so conscientiously and without malice against anybody.
He said: “The standards of education in our schools were not okay.
Last year when salaries were not promptly paid most teachers absconded from duty.”
“By the grace of God, you will be taking your salaries every month.
Even our governor has promised to clear the arrears before the year
runs out.
“Let us work honestly with Fayemi, the schools belong to every one of us if someone tries to disturb you. Just tell me, the Governor sent you there and I am his subordinate whatever I do, I do it on his behalf.
“Let us do the job very well and let the Governor be impressed.”
The Education Secretary of Ado Ekiti Local Government, Mr Oluwatoyin Omotoso, who spoke on behalf of others, explained that they thought it needful to express gratitude to the government for appointing them to their new office.
While keeping the deputy governor abreast of what they met, Omotoso, bemoaned the state of infrastructures met in the schools across the local government areas.
While calling for better funding of their office, Omotoso explained that most of the infrastructures had become obsolete and needed refurbishment.
He called for the recruitment of more teachers at the public primary schools in the Local government and provision of vehicles for the supervision of schools.
