By Hou Akot Hou
Teachers in Northern Bahr El Ghazal (NBG) are under screening exercise by state education authorities in an attempt to streamline the teaching workforce to offer quality education.
The screening is not being done as akin to what was earlier done in Lakes State, Rumbek, through interviewing techniques.
The exercise kicked off on Monday and was carried out by consultants entrusted by the NBGs Ministry of General Education who moved into the schools to get the teacher database.
One of the officials doing the observation and jotting down the names of the certified teachers is Deng Mou Deng, who is an inspector in the state’s Ministry of Education.
Mou said on Monday at Mangar-Tong Payam in Aweil East County that they are screening teachers in different styles, mainly by going to schools without alerting the teachers.
He stated that they just stormed the school and started right away with those who were committed and got their names on their list.
“We just go to school and get the teachers’ names. Those we find at the school are the ones we deal with. Taking their names as we find them teaching is the way we go,” he said.
“The national education conference that was convened in Aweil made us aware that some names are ghost names, so we are dealing with the right people we get in the field,” he added.
Mou noted that some of the schools he has visited so far in Aweil East County on Monday, as reported by his counterparts, have some people whom he thinks are not actual instructors.
“I have confirmed that some teachers never know teaching methodology. They rush to us when they hear we are doing the assessment to find the real teachers,” he said.
“I deny them once they come, as I am doing the screening. We just take the ones we find are in schools; some come from the village while others are not in schools,” he lamented.
One of the teachers, Adut Deng, who teaches elementary classes, said that her colleague was screened out and marked as “absent.” She wonders how her case will be remedied or solved.
“They came to our school and found three of our teachers away. The headteacher reported their absence, but they objected to that report. They said that those present in schools are the ones from whom they take their names,” she noted.
The screening drive came about as a result of the high number of manpower and teachers on the payroll in the state, most of whom are said to be ghost names, and the rest are accused of having deserted teaching for greener pastures.
Some teachers claim that it is another trick of delaying their pay, as this will last for weeks, despite the rumors that the delayed salaries were expected to come in a week’s time.