The Oyo State Government has been charged to provide conducive environment for the operators of private schools in the State to enhance improved standard of education that will return the state to its former status of pace setter in the field of education.
Making the charge in Ibadan, the new Chairman that emerged at the keenly contested election of the Ona Ara chapter of the National Association of Proprietors Of Private Schools in Oyo state, Deacon Dominion Kolapo Temitope, urged the state government to provide more encouragement to members of his organization.
Deacon Kolapo Temitope, who was speaking at the inauguration of the new executive members of the Ona Ara chapter of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, held at the Secretariat of the Association at Olorunsogo Ibadan said members of his association are partners in progress with the State government.
He said his members are job providers for the unemployed youths in the State, helping the government to reduce burdens of millions of unemployed youths and improving its economy.
He stated that his members should not be seen by the government as rivals in the field of education, but as an association of concerned citizen, aiming at improving the standard of education and reducing the unemployment rate in the state.
The new Chairman said his association, with about 500 registered members has provided job opportunity for more than a million young school leavers in the state.
He stressed that in Oyo state, members of the Ona Ara chapter of the association are pace setters, because they are the first to have a secretariat building of their own, and first chapter to produce two out of the three junior secondary school students to win international scholarship to further their education in an international secondary school.
He submitted that two students from Ona Ara, Master Salam Mubarak from Jesus The Rock Model College, Jegede and Miss Adediran of Godwill Comprehensive are now in the Nigerian/Tullip International College after their emergence as winners of a national scholarship competition.
Unfolding his seven-point agenda, the new Chairman said his tenure will ensure approval of at least one hundred and fifty (150) schools and emergence of 50 best schools of international standard from the local government.
While contending poor school fees being paid by parents in schools in Ona Ara local government as compared to others in the city, Deacon Kolapo Temitope enjoined proprietors in the area to be focused and not see their job as money making venture.
He, enjoined the state body of the association to appeal to the state government over the arbitrary taxation being levied on private schools. He called for co-operation and mutual understanding between the government and proprietors of private schools.
Packaged by Rahman Salami
