Oyo TESCOM: When Our Prospective Teachers Are Failing, What Next? || Akande Balikis
The introduction of the Computer-Based Test (CBT) as an assessment mechanism for respective applicants in the ongoing teachers’ recruitment in Oyo State is a welcome development and a very great idea from the present administration to safeguard the future of our children in the public secondary schools in the state.
Considering the technological advancements of the world at present, there is a great need for all hands to be on deck in aligning with the global trends of things. The last attempt to recruit teachers in the state during the administration of the late former Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, was nothing far from political jamboree as nobody could state equivocally how those chosen were selected, or shortlisted and maybe a reason the state keeps having a very obvious downfall in her educational system. Governor Seyi Makinde deserves accolades with this latest development.
Sadly, our teachers are failing and even falling. They are mostly those teachers in many of our glorified private schools across the state and even outside the state. What are they teaching our kids with the hundred of thousands that keep rolling into their accounts at the commencement of each term of an academic session? This may not be the case of the mightiest are falling but a case of a failed educational system experienced by all.
The CBT did as well come with its own challenges, ranging from poor or inadequate skills in computer operations from the respective applicants to the freight of handling the mouse, directing the cursor of the system and the obvious lack of technical support from the organisers. Be that as it may, why was the mass failure so obvious?
Going by the evaluation of the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) of the state, just 10% scaled through the meritorious ladder of 50%+ while others were frozen while crawling to meet up with the meritorious performance mark. What should the government do? Will politics not end up hijacking the much crowded recruitment by the politicians? Their applicants must get the job while merit may be sweep under the rug, then leaving the fate of the meritorious applicants unto the God’s hand.
Of course, mock no one, we all could fail the CBT, we all practically passed through an educational system that taught us virtually, the impossible reality of the society we are struggling to align with. I even think if those with certificates in Computer Operations, Sciences, Engineering and Software Applications that partook in the CBT exercise were not faced with many issues in operating the assigned computer systems. Only they could testify that, they did not have an access to a computer system while in school. What then do we expect?
Government, on her part, did not from the onset set an age bar for the prospective teachers. Too many old people surfaced in the exercise. Those that were virtually far from operating an android or a browsing phone, only God knows what options they were picking as their answers, thereby, shaming the faces of the younger ones.
In all, we all failed the test. We are all a product of a failed educational system.
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