The Edo government has announced plans to recruit additional 3,000 teachers to strengthen teaching capacity and improve learning outcomes across public schools in the state.

Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo said this when the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), led by its state chairman, Bernard Ajobiewe, visited him on Wednesday in Benin.

Mr Okpebholo expressed his administration’s commitment to education as the cornerstone of human development.

He emphasised that teachers remained a top priority in his development agenda.

Mr Okpebholo said his administration had built and renovated dilapidated schools and regularised the employment of over 5,000 Edo-Star teachers who had remained contract staff for more than three years under the immediate past administration.

Mr Okpebholo expressed appreciation to Edo teachers for their diligence and patriotism in shaping the future of the state.

“Teachers remain a top priority in our development agenda. We are building and renovating schools across Edo, and as infrastructure improves, so must manpower.

“Our goal is to ensure that no school lacks a qualified teacher and that every child receives quality education in a conducive learning environment,” the governor said.

Earlier, Mr Ajobiewe conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award on Mr Okpebholo.

The award was presented in the company of the acting chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Edo State chapter, Jormah Egwahide.

The NUT award was in recognition of Mr Okpebholo’s exceptional reforms and commitment to repositioning the state’s education sector.

Meanwhile, the NUT and NLC welcomed the governor’s recruitment of 3,000 additional teachers, saying the development would improve the quality of education in public schools.

(NAN)