The night barely gives way for the day when Tayo Alabi briskly rose from her bed to begin preparation for the gruesome 4-hour road trip to Ibadan for the Teaching Service Commission Computer Based Test.
Like Tayo, other apprehensive applicants scattered across the 33 local governments and beyond, especially those billed to sit for the test that day, July 29, 2024, have equally risen for the journey ahead.
In the hours that followed, Tayo quickly cooked her meal, took her bath, prepared her two kids, and dashed out of the house at exactly 4:15 am to catch up with other applicants waiting at an agreed place for the takeoff. As a 2019 graduate of mathematics from the University of Ilorin, Tayo’s hope of securing a government job through a fair, open, and transparent process rekindled her fleeting hope in the system. But this was not her first time applying for this job. In 2020 as Governor Seyi Makinde’s government grapples with delivering on its mandate, the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) quickly rolled out its application form. That year, it promised to hire only 5,000 teachers out of 65, 000 applicants who sat for the CBT test. By February 2021, the appointment letters of successful applicants were released.
But Tayo, like other passionate private school teachers, couldn’t pass one of the most significant guardrails of the recruitment exercise: the computer-based test. Confident of the improvement she has made since her last letdown, Tayo vowed to crush the test before her with remarkable gusto. And she did, at least in theory. By the time the result of that test was eventually released amid suspense and apprehension, what she saw broke her heart. She scored 12!
For onlookers, Tayo’s result, in addition to hundreds of thousands of people who flunked the test may seem like a reflection of their performance. However, after a week-long interview conducted discreetly with applicants, a darker side to the exercise that experts have dubbed: a fall from the 2020 recruitment grace has emerged. “When you compare the standard of the 2020 exercise with that of 2024, you will see a clear difference”, Adekunle Ajuwon, an educationist noted “In terms of transparency and fairness and openness, the 2020 standard was way higher than the current one and the reason is not far-fetched. He said Governor Makinde’s insistence on due process and lack of political interference made all the difference in 2020. For example, findings have shown that Makinde’s government in 2020 was concerned about building credibility to tell the public that it is different from the late Abiola Ajimobi’s government. As such, the governor personally ensured the integrity of the test, and read the riot act to aspiring meddlers while warning politicians to stay clear of undue and unnecessary interference and influence in the process.
Fast forward to 2024, and having won his re-election convincingly, the same system that conducted fair recruitment four years ago has failed to build on the gains and momentum of that scorecard, leaving applicants like Tayo resentful of the system. “Time and again when you decide to have little hope in the system, it gives you plenty of reasons to be resentful”, Tayo told me. The story is the same with Olamilekan Esau, a private school teacher from Oorelope local government, Igboho who often juggles one school to another because of his expertise and experience. He had waited for the opportunity to advance public education but the outcome of the test broke him down. “I knew the result handed to me was not mine because there was no way I would have pulled that ridiculous score in the first place”, he angrily stated.
In weeks to come, appointment letters will be rolled out but the numbers of heartbroken applicants speak to a larger unemployment crisis rocking Nigeria. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that unemployment has risen since January. In January, it said the unemployment rate in the country is forecast to be 4.52% in 2024. Plus, the number of unemployed people in Nigeria is equally forecast to be 3.54m in 2024.
With the continuous exit of many companies in droves and the fluctuation and instability in the economy, the number is expected to grow beyond that benchmark. This year, no fewer than 62,000 applicants applied for the 7000 teaching and 3,500 non-teaching offers across the various post-primary schools in the state according to information Pastor Akinade Alamu, TESCOM chairman. Of the 62,000, only 9,000 candidates successfully passed the computer-based test. In a similar, vein, the staggering number of applicants for the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) was equally estimated to be a total of 52,423 for the 7,000 teaching positions and 100 caregivers offered in the public schools in the state. Dr. Nureni Adeniran, SUBEB chairman noted that only 8,187 candidates scored above the required 50 percent cut-off mark. SUBEB’s last recruitment was in 2005!
Apart from the usual disappointment that of often trailed examination letdown, most SUBEB candidates hardly express the same level of resentment and angst typical of many TESCOM applicants. “It is not the fact that people failed”, Abidin Oladimeji, a TESCOM who scored above the pass mark contended “It is the nature of the failure. A situation where people just receive scores that is far from what they did in the exam hall”. It’s ridiculous and outrageous at the same time, he quipped.
“Yes, I passed the exam but my score is not a true reflection of my performance”. Experts said the massive failure recorded may not be unconnected to the deliberate attempt of the test organizers to trim the number of applicants to a sizeable and manageable chunk. “The number of applicants for both SUBEB and TESCOM jobs portrays our state and country as sitting on a keg of gun powder”, Falola Bashir, an activist noted. When you have that alarming number of people jostling for meager jobs, it is indicative of many wrongs with our system and our psyche. “At the venue of the test, you see old people and young people in record numbers”, it is absurd, Kunle Ishola enthused. In regions like Oke-Ogun where applicants performance was abysmal, government is planning on mobilizing close to 900 teachers from other zones to the place. Insiders said the community leaders are exploring all means to reject such ideas and plans.
Tayo and the rest of the failed applicants seem to resign to faith albeit temporarily until another glimmer of hope emerges out of the shadow of disappointment and frustration. “Until then”, she optimistically quipped “life is meant to be lived fully regardless of the situations and circumstances”.
OYO101 is Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion about issues affecting the Oyo state and is published every Saturday. He can be reached via @GbadeTheGreat on X, muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com, and 09065176850.
