By Jimitota Onoyume
FEDERAL and state governments have been urged to declare emergency in education at the rural levels in the country.

Executive Chairman, Bayelsa State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Mr. Rhodesia Whyte, who spoke to Vanguard, said practical steps should be taken to save education in the rural areas across the country

According to him, some of the schools in the rural areas are in very deplorable state.

He said most teachers decline posting to most of the interiors of the state, adding that  they often come up with medical excuses to escape posting to the villages.

He said in Bayelsa State, the administration of Governor Timpre Sylva was making practical efforts to tackle the challenge, noting that the government was building classrooms and had also supplied chairs to various primary and junior secondary schools round the state.

In the meantime, he called for special incentives to be created for teachers that would accept postings to villages in the country.

“You can’t compare the state of schools in the deep rural areas with those ones in the urban areas. You find sometimes that in some schools in the rural areas, one teacher is the headmaster, he is the head teacher and at the same time he is the teacher. He is all in everything.  To get out of this situation, government should as a matter of policy, provide incentives for teachers that accept posting to the rural schools”

“Government should declare emergency in rural schools, reappropriate teaching staff so that the ones that are ready should be there with incentives. When you do postings you sometimes see teachers come with all kinds of excuses to escape going to the villages. They even come with medical reports showing that they have one form of ailment or the other that will require them to be close to specific hospitals in the major cities that can manage the situations for them.  I think with special incentives for teachers that accept postings to the rural areas all these would stop”, he said.

He said his board had continued to do its best to ensure that rural areas are not left out in its programme of delivering on basic education both at the primary and junior secondary school level.

The Executive Chairman also enjoined stakeholders in the educational sector to live up to their responsibilities. Noting that education for all is the duty of all, he urged parents and guardians to also play their roles.