David Williams
The Executive Chairman of Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Prof. Femi Akinwumi has announced the indefinite suspension of the Education Secretary of Ikere Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Mr. Gbenro Buraimoh and the Head Teacher of Elemi Community N/P School, Ado Ekiti, Mrs. Olaniyi Catherine over allegations of misconduct.
Prof. Akinwumi who made the pronouncement in Ado Ekiti, said the decision to suspend the officials became necessary after repeated warnings to the Education Secretary and the Head Teacher over allegations of breaching extant rules of the board.
According to the SUBEB Boss, the Education Secretary was accused of violating the extant rules of the board by deliberately delaying official matters, irregular appointment of Teachers of junior ranks into managerial duty posts in schools as well as granting leave of absence to teachers without recourse to the board and postings of high number of teachers to schools with low pupils enrollment in farmsteads thereby leading to underutilization of staff.
The Board directed the Education Secretary to hand over to Dr. Akande Oluwafemi of the Quality Assurance Department of the Board who is to take over as Acting Education Secretary with immediate effect.
The affected education secretary was also ordered to hand over all government properties in his possession to the Head of Administration in the LGEA.
In the same vein, the suspended Head Teacher, Mrs. Catherine Olaniyi
who was indicted for writing an inflammatory letter to the public, demanding for unauthorized financial assistance towards implementation of an SBMC-SIP project in her school
was ordered to handover all government documents in her possession to the most senior assistant Head Teacher in the school with immediate effect, pending further determination of her case.
Prof. Akinwumi said the board has zero tolerance for anything that could tarnish the good reputation of the state government, stressing that the state Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji is working round the clock to provide enabling teaching/learning environment in the basic education sector.
He re-echoed the free education policy of the state government, adding that government would continue to clamp down on perpetrators of fraudulent activities in public schools
The Chairman noted that the suspensions would serve as deterrent to other staff, warning that the board would never condone any act of indiscipline among the SUBEB workforce.