A fresh disagreement has emerged between the Osun State Government and a member of the House of Representatives, Oluwole Oke, over claims that a planned recruitment of part-time teachers for public schools was abruptly halted by the state authorities.
Oke, who represents Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency, alleged that the state government stopped a proposed engagement of about 700 teachers, which he said was designed to address acute manpower shortages in schools within his constituency.
According to the lawmaker, the initiative was conceived as an education intervention under his Education Trust Fund, aimed at temporarily filling gaps in core subject areas pending a more permanent recruitment by the state government.
However, the Osun State Government has dismissed the claim, insisting it had no knowledge of such a recruitment exercise and did not issue any directive to stop it.
Reacting to the allegation, the Commissioner for Education, Dipo Eluwole, said the ministry was unaware of any formal arrangement to recruit teachers into public schools through the lawmaker’s initiative.
“As the Commissioner for Education, I am hearing this for the first time. There is nothing of such,” Eluwole said, adding that part-time teachers already operate in schools through Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs).
“Nobody stopped anything. There are PTA teachers everywhere. He is only trying to score a political point,” the commissioner stated.
Oke, however, maintained that the planned recruitment was not intended as a parallel employment scheme but as a constituency-based intervention to address overcrowded classrooms and declining learning outcomes, particularly in Ijesa North.
He said applications were invited from qualified NCE holders and university graduates, with shortlisted candidates scheduled for screening at the Ipetu-Ijesa Campus of Osun State University, before the process was allegedly discontinued without consultation.
Oke further claimed that the state government later announced its own teachers’ recruitment exercise, which he described as coinciding with the suspension of his initiative.