By Joke Adeniyi- Jackson
The Chairman, Kwara State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Hon. Abdulrasaq Ibrahim has given insight into the recent leadership test conducted for potential principals and vice principals of public schools in the state.
The examination, which was conducted by a consultant, was held for two days at St Anthony Secondary School, Ilorin.
Aspiring vice principals sat for their examination on Wednesday, 28th October 2017 while potential principals wrote their test the following day.
No fewer than 310 people participated in the exercise, with 200 writing leadership test for the position of principal and 110 for vice principal.
Speaking on the examination, TESCOM chairman, Hon Ibrahim said the novel initiative is to ensure leadership competence among managers of state-owned schools.
“This (leadership test) became necessary so that our principals and vice principals can effectively and efficiently manage both human and material resources,” he said.
He further said that the examination was contracted to consultant for transparency and fairness, adding that the exercise was hitch free.
Ibrahim explained that successful candidates would fill vacant positions as soon as there are openings in schools.
“What will happen is that when a principal retires one of the successful candidates will fill the position. It is not that we are going to lay off those in office,” he further explained.
According to him, the leadership test will be a continuous exercise for the state to have a pool from where eligible candidates can be selected.
He said the next leadership test would be held in six months to avail more qualified people the opportunity of writing the test.
The TESCOM boss said vice principals who are on level 16 are qualified to write test for principal position while their contemporaries on the same grade who are class teachers can only aspire to be vice principal.
Ibrahim added that result of the examination would be made public as soon as the consultants are through with assessment, stating further that successful potential principals would be subjected to oral interview at point of replacement.
On the ongoing reposting of teachers, he explained that the exercise is for proper redistribution of teachers.
The TESCOM chair who noted that some schools have deficit of teachers said the exercise would help address the problem.
“The transfer of teachers that we embarked upon will help in the distribution of teachers. We discovered that some teachers have stayed in one school for more than 10 years. So, we will move them.
“Then, there are some schools have inadequate number of teachers while some others have excess. So through this exercise we will be able to address this,” he said.
