BY Gbenga Ariyibi

Labour Party (LP) candidate in Ekiti gubernatorial election slated for next month, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele has pledged to stop the compulsory assessment test for public school teachers if elected.

Bamidele made the promise during a meeting on Wednesday in Ado Ekiti, held with the teachers under the umbrella of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).
Bamidele told the teachers that rather than subjecting them to a compulsory aptitude test, he would build their professional capacity through training and re-training.

If elected as a governor, he also pledged to expose them to current global trends and developments in teaching profession.
According to him “As a governor I won’t subject you to a compulsory test. It is not that you can’t write exams and pass, but it must not be at the insistence of the state governor”.

He added that “My role as a governor will not be to forcefully examine you. My role will be to encourage you and expose you to contemporary global developments in your profession by training and re-training you”.

“As teachers, we shall give you confidence and professional esteem. We shall appreciate you as builders of the society because no nation exits without teachers. This confidence has been eroded over the years. We shall revisit the non-payment of the 27.5% increment of pecuniary allowances for teachers being owed by the current administration”.

According to him, “I will go beyond the minimum standard for education budget for state governments. I will evolve more on context and character in the sector. To achieve this, the teachers can never be left out, in terms of their welfare and job satisfaction”.

In his remark, State NUT Chairman, Comrade Kayode Akosile who appreciated Bamidele’s gestures to Ekiti teachers in the past also described his visit to the “Teachers’ House” in Iyin Road as homecoming.