Politics of competency test and the options available to Oshiomhole

As a labour leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole led popular actions against different governments. Now, the teachers’ union in Edo State are up in arms against a plan by the state administration to verify their competence for the job they do. BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE Governor Adams Oshiomhole had at different fora expressed his determination to lift the level of education in the state. It even became more pressing on him after he visited a primary school and met a teacher who could not read well. So the need of verifying the competence of the teachers in the school system became a pressing matter for the state administration. Governor Oshiomhole was backed by some strategic stakeholders in his pursuit. Speakers at a stakeholders’ meeting which took place at Imaguero College Hall gave the governor the go ahead to organize the test for the teachers, and this was what gave birth to the Prof. Dennis Agbonlahor Committee that was saddled with the task of organizing the Competency test. Oshiomhole and one of the state’s teacher The test was, however, strongly opposed by some other stakeholders, mostly the teachers who were involved. A meeting between some civil society groups and the leadership of the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers [NUT] to find a common ground over the objection of the teachers to the competency test ended in deadlock on Wednesday. Concerned members of the civil society in the state also met privately with Governor Oshiomhole towards reaching a common ground between the administration and the warring teachers. But after all the negotiations last week, the teachers stuck to their guns. Speaking with newsmen soon after one of the meetings held at the famous Teachers House, State Chairman of the NUT, Comrade Mike Ununmwangho said the teachers would not write the competency test as he described the exercise as vindictive adding that the teachers do not trust the State Government. The state administration, however, rejected the claims. “The test is not to sack or witch-hunt any teacher but to ascertain those who might need assistance and level of training or retraining required as part of the determination of the Adams Oshiomhole administration to deliver an all-round quality education for the Edo child”, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Loius Odion said while denying the receipt of a court order restraining the government from going ahead with the test. However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State on its part while opposing the competency test berated the state government for “using every means possible, including the proposed conduct of competency test for teachers in the state to generate revenue.” The party stated that the state government was using “the competency test, along with some other policies including repressive tax policies to shore up the state’s depleted vault.” State chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, who in a statement before the exercise said, “using competency test as a yardstick for retrenchment means using teachers as scapegoat for the dire financial crisis the state governments has plunged the state into.” ”We condemn in very strong term the decision to conduct the competency test. It is discriminatory and unacceptable. For it to be justified, the state government should first of all subject everyone to competency test, starting from the Government House. We sympathize with teachers at this time because we know they are being made the sacrificial lamb. “As we have repeatedly stated, the proper thing is to organize in-house training for teachers as done by the administration of the late Ambrose Alli. Teachers who were found lacking then were not discarded as being planned but trained to become useful for themselves and their families. We say Governor Oshiomhole should not turn people who are bread winners in their families to bread seekers. The PDP’s assertion was tackled by the All Progressives Congress, APC which threw its weight behind the test. The APC state organizing secretary, Mr. Thomas Okosun in his own reaction said: “I want to state