The Nigeria Police Force on Thursday said 1,731 teachers were promoted out of the 2,200 that wrote the 2016/2017 promotion examination across the federation.

Mr Ajao Emmanuel, the Deputy Director, Human Resources, Force Education Headquarters, Abuja, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during the presentation of letters of promotion to beneficiaries in the Lagos Zone.

NAN reports that 241 out of the 1,731 teachers from across the country that benefited from the promotion were from Lagos Zone comprising schools from Ibadan and Abeokuta.

Emmanuel said the cut-off mark for the examination which held in November 2016 in Abuja was 60 per cent.

He said that not all members of staff who were not promoted failed the examination.

Some were not promoted because there was no vacancy to accommodate them in the next cadre, he said.

“So many factors are usually considered in promotion in the Federal Civil Service and most important is the vacancies available.

“So, it is possible for somebody to pass an examination and the vacancy will not cover him or her.

“For example, 60 per cent was the cut-off mark; someone who scored 70 per cent might have not been promoted because there was no vacancy to accommodate him or her.

“I am trying to explain that for a particular cadre, there may be 20 vacancies and it is possible for 28 candidates to pass the examination.

“All they do is to take the highest scorers from 1 to 20 and the remaining eight will have to repeat the examination next time,” he said.

Emmanuel said while so many things were considered in creating vacancies, it is not created by the Police Education Unit but by the Federal Civil Service.

He said that the Police Education Unit had appealed to the Ministry of Interior and the Head of Service to create more vacancies to enable more teachers to be promoted.

The Deputy Director said regular promotion was important to motivate the teachers to put in their best to their jobs, which would in turn produce excellent students.

“The aspiration of a worker in any job at all is to continue rising to the top and then retire with joy; so promotion makes a worker fulfilled and gives him or her the feelings that his or employer cares,” he said.

Emmanuel, however, advised the promoted candidates to justify the promotion by not resting on their oars on their jobs but to soar higher.

A beneficiary, Mrs Felicia Ejeanyido, of the Police Children School, Idimu, expressed joy for being promoted and lauded the authorities for the effort while promising to put in more efforts in her job. (NAN)

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