The Member of Parliament for Bunkpurugu, Abednego Bandim, has expressed concern over the persistent refusal of teachers, nurses, and National Service Personnel to accept postings to the constituency due to ongoing conflicts in the area.
The MP laments that the situation has left several schools without teachers, from the basic level through to Junior High School.
Addressing members of the Bimoba Students Union, Abednego Bandim appealed to the Minister of Education to prioritise the recruitment of qualified indigenes as teachers and nurses, arguing that local professionals are more likely to accept postings and remain to serve their communities.
“I met with the Minister for Education, I think last week, and put before him a proposal to consider recruiting teachers from the constituency. Why? And posting them there because of conflicts, people from other parts of the country don’t like accepting postings to Bunkpurugu,” he said
He added: “When they post a teacher to Bunkpurugu, they don’t want to go. Even National Service, for one year, they don’t accept posting. When they accept, it’s because they are desperate to get jobs. But once they get the job and they go there, within a year or two, they seek transfers.
“You see a school from primary 1 to 6 in JHS, 1, 2, 3, and there is only one teacher. Some of the schools have closed down because of conflicts.
The Secretary to the EC Chair of the Bimoba Students’ Union, Laar Yoobaar, also appealed to the MP, who also serves as Chairman of the Communication and Information Committee of Parliament, to help address longstanding network connectivity challenges in the area, which he said are negatively affecting students’ academic work.
“We have been suffering from network challenges. And as someone who is the chairman of the communication committee, I think you can leverage your authority to get some of the network to mitigate the challenges that we are facing,” he said.
