Ten thousand teachers in Oyo State have been discovered to be dormant after a verification by the government.
They were primary school teachers under the state Universal Basic Education Board.
The government embarked on the verification to get an accurate and reliable database.
The result of the exercise, it said, showed that at the primary school level, pupil-teacher ratio is 14 to 1. Whereas optimally, the ratio supposed to be 30 pupils to a teacher.
Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology Prof. Joseph Adeniyi Olowofela, who spoke to reporters yesterday, described the situation as disturbing and retrogressive.
Olowofela said the outcome of the verification confirmed there were more teachers in some classes than necessary.
He insisted there was no going back on restructuring of schools.
“In Oyo State today, we realised that if we are to go by the optimal ratio of 30 pupils to a teacher, over 10,000 teachers will have to be moved to other productive sectors of the economy.
“There are schools with no pupils, yet teachers are assigned to such schools. In most of the schools, we found cases of three teachers per class handling 20 pupils,” he explained.
Allaying fears of a witch-hunt, Olowofela maintained that the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led administration has no intention to retrench any civil servant, noting that the objective of the exercise is to run an efficient and effective administration.
