Speaking at the Big Qua Girls Secondary School, Calabar, centre for candidates from the Southern Senatorial District, the Assistant Director, Internal Audit UBEC, Elder Edward Abalaka, said the exercise was successful and commended candidates for their conduct during the test.
According to him, “We thank God, the general conduct was satisfactory, there was no problem. Before we started we prayed and addressed everybody and they all adhered strictly to the rules, so there was no problem. It was a one and a half hour paper, three papers in one, mathematics, english, and general paper but they rounded up before the 1hr 30 minutes was up. There were supposed be 126 candidates in this center but 105 were present, 21 were absent.”
Elder Abalaka who said the screening test was conducted simultaneously in all the 36 states including the FCT, added that successful candidates will be chosen based on their performance and the quota given to each state.
“I don’t know the quota for Cross River State, but 500 people were supposed to write this exam, out of this number the successful ones will be selected based on the quota given to the State. So I would not know the quota given to each state now until after the result. But it is expected that by Monday all papers will be returned to Abuja, collation and marking will be done in Abuja. It is expected that after the result UBEC will communicate with the states the list of successful candidates based on their performance,” he stated.
Abalaka said that although the FTS is an intervention programme by the Federal Government to bridge the gap of deficit teachers in the Country, the State is advised to absorb them after the two years window.
“This is one of the intervention policies of the federal Government, we have deficit of teachers in the whole country at large, and so it is an attempt to bridge the gap. Primary education is not within the federal government purview, it is solely the responsibility of the State and Local Government. So this is an intervention for two years, after two years every state is expected to integrate them into the state school system”.
While thanking the Federal Government for intervening, the Board Secretary SUBEB, Cyril Itam further appealed for an increase in the number of teachers under the intervention.
“In the basic education sector, even if you give us one hundred thousand teachers we will be very glad because we lack teachers. 500 candidates were shortlisted and from what I have seen here in this center not everyone wrote the screening test. The number of shortlisted candidates for the test was low for this time, I appeal that the next time the exercise is conducted more should be shortlisted, because like I said it is just a way of helping the basic education sector to grow. If you build all the infrastructure without teachers then it will amount to nothing,” he said.
Two of the candidates, Effime Charles, Biase LGA and Effanga mary, Calabar South LGA commended the Board for the conducive environment and the good conduct of the screening test.
According to Mary “It was nice, the questions were not too difficult, the environment was conducive, the invigilators were coordinated and organised, and the candidates were orderly”.
