Delta State House of Assembly Committee on Education has expressed satisfaction in the ongoing recruitment process of intending teaching and non-teaching staff into Technical Colleges across the state.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon Charles Emetulu stated this when the Committee visited the Asaba centre for the oral interviews and practical stage of the recruitment process.
Accompanied by two members of the Committee, Honourables Rueben Izeze and Peter Uviejitobor, the lawmakers were received on arrival by the State Commissioner for Technical Education, Princess Shola Daibo and other top officials of the ministry.
Hon Emetulu expressed satisfaction over the seriousness and transparency in the process and commended the government’s determination to recruit only the best and knowledgeable hands into the newly established Technical Colleges as well as to fill the vacant positions in the existing ones.
He explained that members of the Committee were on an oversight visit to the centre of the recruitment exercise for an on-the-spot assessment of the process, saying that there could be a repeat visit before the end of the exercise.
Hon Emetulu frowned at the slow pace of screening of candidates and called on organizers to speed up the process to enable them to attend to the large number of candidates who came from across the state for the exercise.
Addressing the large crowd of applicants who made it to the practical stage, the Lawmaker urged them to appreciate the process as the exercise was devoid of any form of influence besides merits.
Hon Emetulu stressed that Technical Education was key to the development of the state, hence the effort of the state government at growing the sector to enviable heights.
He commended the applicants for their patience, even as he admonished them to be orderly and be of good behaviour all through the exercise, saying that if it was possible to employ all of them, the state would not have hesitated to do so.
Emetulu however expressed optimism that the best would emerge at the end of the various stages of the recruitment process.
Conducting members of the Committee round the various screening departments and sessions at the Skill Acquisition Center Asaba, venue of the oral interview for prospective candidates, the Commissioner for Technical education, Princess Shola Diabo, disclosed that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had directed that the recruitment must be on merits.
Princess Diabo said she was satisfied with the level of fairness and transparency of the process so far and commended the support of all critical stakeholders.
Speaking on the essence of the screening, the Technical Education Commissioner, said due to the high premium the state government has for education, it intends to employ only qualified candidates to drive the process, stressing that exercise based on merits was the only way forward.
She disclosed that a written examination had earlier been conducted for the over 28,000 applicants who applied for the various advertised positions into the new and old Technical Colleges, of which 8,000 candidates were shortlisted.
She added that after a computer-based test, 1,000 was shortlisted for the oral test, out of which 325 persons will be employed as teaching staff and 184 as none teaching staff.
Princess Daibo called for patience from candidates as the screening process might take a little longer time, even as she commended the lawmakers for the visit.
Some of the candidates said they were pleased with the process and procedures, but appealed to the organizers to hasten the process.
