By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
With less than three days for the incumbent administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and some state governors to wind to an end, the governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, has authorized the upgrading of 545 teachers, who were sometimes ago demoted for failing to meet up with the benchmark set up by the education authority.
The teachers’ upgrading followed the acquisition of new and genuine certificate after they went back to class rooms to study to upgrade their certificates and brains.
SUBEB Chairman, Senator Stephen Odey, disclosed this yesterday in a telephone chat with our correspondent in Calabar, saying that the board upgraded the affected teachers after verifying their newly acquired certificates.
The SUBEB boss stated that the affected teachers have now been upgraded to their commensurate ranks and salary grade levels, based on their newly acquired certificates.
Odey averred that the decision to demote 1,500 teachers with fake certificates was more of restitution than punishment, as punishment would have amounted to their outright dismissal from service.
Urging teachers to be exemplary and avoid being lured into certificate forgery, the board chairman said that the demotion should serve as a deterrent to others who may want to engage in such illegalities.
Recall that in 2017 the board demoted 1,500 teachers found with fake certificates and results deficiencies, after a thorough personnel audit exercise.
The upgraded teachers’ names have been forwarded to the state Auditor-General for Local Government, the Head of Service and their respective Local Government Education Authority, LGEA, offices for their information and implementation.
One of the teachers, Stella Edem, who spoke to our correspondent on the issue said, “I am so happy that we are going to be upgraded. It hasn’t been easy since the demotion, as my salary had been nothing to write home about since the demotion.
“I am so grateful and happy that the government had a re-think to attend to us after we toiled in school trying to upgrade ourselves.”
