By Olabode Akinwale
ONDO STATE is no doubt one of the few states in the federation that takes the issue of education management which encompasses the administration and leadership of educational systems at the secondary school level very seriously and conscientiously in a way that is motivated by moral and official sense of right and wrong.
The Sunshine State since the start of the fourth republic has been fortunate to have governors that have left no stone unturned in putting in place solid and sure structure for an enduring and result oriented educational legacy.
Recently, the state Governor, Hon (Dr) Lucky Aiyedatiwa approved the recruitment of about 1000 graduate teachers to boost the human resource capacity of secondary schools in Ondo State aside the infrastructural uplift revolution that is being witnessed across the three senatorial zones.
In addition, the State Government also paid the 2025 West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination fees for all students in public schools across Ondo State. A cost that runs into several millions of Naira!
However, the administrative and management set up of the Board that suppose to superintendent the affairs of secondary schools in Ondo State is crooked to say the least.
The Board, Ondo State TESCOM (Teaching Service Commission) is statutorily responsible for managing and overseeing the teaching workforce in the state’s public secondary schools. It’s functions include teacher recruitment, training, development, and performance management.
The duties and responsibilities of TESCOM when properly followed through, is a sine qua non for a brighter academic performance for students.
And anything short of that is an invitation to chaos.
As a result, the attention of the state governor Hon (Dr) Lucky Aiyedatiwa is hereby called to the gross and crass violation of civil service rules and etiquette that is presently going on in TESCOM.
As at today, Ondo State TESCOM has no substantive Permanent Secretary (PS) as it’s administrative head.
However, there is a woman who is an Administrative Secretary (which is an equivalent of a Director in the Civil Service) that sit atop the Board.
Ordinarily, there wouldn’t have been any issue with such a bureaucratic set up in OndoTESCOM if a Director who is an Administrative Secretary (AS) has not been placed to supervise Tutor Generals!
According to protocol arrangements, there are three (3) Tutor Generals in TESCOM, one from each senatorial zones of the state and since the rank of a Tutor General is equivalent to a Permanent Secretary, it is therefore abnormal and tantamount to official recklessness and rascality for an Administrative Secretary (a Director) to superintendent over a Tutor General, no matter the circumstance.
Reliable information from impeccable sources confirmed that the TESCOM’s Administrative Secretary do not just order the Tutor Generals around in the Commission but also push them around ignominiuosly.
In fact, part of the information has it that the “powerful” Administrative Secretary is the wife of the present Head of Service (HOS) of Ondo State!
Abuse of power is not just when a public office holder corruptly enrich himself financially but also when such office holder use power or peddle influence in a way that is unethical, illegal, or harmful, exceeding the bounds of legitimate authority.
Ondo State Governor, Hon (Dr) Lucky Aiyedatiwa must realize that the state’s HOS has exceeded the bounds of legitimate authority by corruptly influencing the posting of his wife and thereby encouraging her indirectly to flout civil service rules by lordng things over senior officers against the norms.
It’s expected that the Governor and others concerned will correct this obvious anomaly before it snowballed into something else that can put the state’s civil service into disrepute and the education of our children in jeopardy.
Our EASE in Ondo State must not diminish.
Time to act is NOW!
Comrade Olabode Akinwale writes from Akure, Ondo State.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the position or policy of JKNewsMedia.
