Committed to the overall development of education in Ogun State through infrastructural upgrade and equipment, the State Universal Basic Education Board has awarded contracts for the construction of 76 blocks of classrooms, the project which are at the various stages of completion will ensure the success of the free and qualitative education programme of the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration in the State.
The Executive Chairman of the Board, Alhaji Olatunde Okewole stated this while playing host to the Committee on Education, Science and Technology led by Hon. Olayiwola Ojodu on a budget assessment visit to the Board’s Office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
Okewole explained that the contract included eight blocks of classrooms for Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCDE), fifty blocks of classrooms for public primary schools and 18 blocks for junior secondary schools.
He added that government had also paid the Universal Basic Education (UBE) counterpart fund between 2014 and 2017 to enable the board access UBE intervention fund for the same period, just as it had transmitted the action plans for (2014-2016) which would serve as guide for the execution of UBE intervention projects for the 2018/2019 academic session.
Okewole stated that the board confirmed the appointment of 457 eligible teaching staff to complement the existing manpower in schools across the State, while it had collaborated with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to conduct personnel audit in all the public and private primary and junior secondary schools in the State to determine the number of out-of-school children and those enrolled.
Okewole, who reassured that SUBEB would continue to evolve strategies for the implementation of education policies formulated by Federal and State Governments for the basic education in public primary and junior secondary schools across the three Senatorial Districts of the State, added that the Board in the period under review, prepared basic education statistics for public primary schools.
On pupil enrollment, Okewole disclosed that the statistics from the Board reflected that 447, 953 pupils were enrolled during the assessment period across 1,564 schools with the total population of 14,982 teachers, while 76 blocks of 174 classrooms comprising 50 offices/stores were constructed.
He added that another 122 blocks of 378 classrooms with 31 stores/stores were rehabilitated within the 2018 fiscal year, disclosing that pupils and teachers’ furniture sets as well as instructional facilities were supplied to public primary and junior secondary schools with an assurance for improved infrastructural facilities to schools.
In a related development, the Rector, Ogun State Polytechnic Polytechnic, Ipokia, Dr Adeola Odedina, reeled out the achievements of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, that the institution had generated over N925.4m and expended N1.22bn on its recurrent expenditures, with N18.04m spent on capital projects from January, 2018 till date.
Odedina represented by the Deputy Rector, Ayodeji Tella, who gave the breakdown while taking his turn to present the achievements of MAPOLY for the year under review, also reviewed the budget performance of the new Ogun State Polytechnic at Ipokia.
Members of the Committee including Honourable Akanbi Bankole, Julianah Akintayo and Yetunde Sogbein-Adekanbi in their separate remarks, tasked the Boards and institutions to develop more policies towards ensuring productivity at all levels of education in the State for it to retain its enviable position in the comity of States.
Meanwhile, the State Teaching Service Commission says it has committed a total sum of N11.63bn for the payment of salaries for teaching and non-teaching staff across the twenty Local Government Areas between January to August this year.
The Chairman, Teaching Service Commission,  (Chief) Mrs Olabosipo Ogunsan who stated this while presenting the achievements of the Commission before members of the State House Committee on Education, Science and Technology led by Hon. Olayiwola Ojodu at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, added that the Board generated N2.25m within the period.
Packaged by Hazeez Ayansola
