Prince Dapo Abiodun’s government in Ogun State has announced that efforts are in top gear to commence the rehabilitation of 236 blocks of classrooms in schools across all wards in the State as part of plans to provide conducive environment towards developing purposeful and inclusive educational system that will in turn produce learners who can compete favourably with their counterparts across the globe.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Olu Aikulola said this while defending the 2019 budget performance of the ministry in Abeokuta before members of the State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Science and Technology led by Hon Ademuyiwa Adeyemi.
Explaining the importance of befitting learning environment to qualitative performance, Aikulola stressed that the Prince Dapo Abiodun led administration upon assumption of office, liaise with concerned stakeholders including the Ministry to compiled a comprehensive list of schools which needed to be given a face-lift across the twenty Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas.
He expressed confidence that the renovations when completed, would go a long way to encourage the practices of teaching and learning between teacher and students, adding that the Ministry which had twenty Zonal Offices, eight government owned science and technology colleges and a functional government technical and vocational centre, generated over N833 million during the period under review.
The Permanent Secretary added that the State Government had equally approved the extension of the Teach for Nigeria (TFN) Scheme for another period of four years tenure, having found it expedient to further engage the scheme which was put in place by a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) that scout for young graduates from various field of studies with passion for teaching.
The Permanent Secretary remarked that the operatives in the scheme which were posted to various primary schools across the State to complement the existing workforce, applied modern ways of teaching including pedagogy to teach pupils, whose performance had increased above 40 percent following the conduct of assessment test by the ministry recently.
Responding, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Adeyemi Ademuyiwa, said that education remained the bedrock of advancement of any developing nation, calling for holistic reform of the ministry to further improve on it performance, particularly in the provision of infrastructure and manpower improvement.
Adeyemi tasked the Ministry to look inwards towards exploring necessary means to promote the teachings of technical and vocational education which he noted could provide more employment opportunities, thereby serving as catalyst for improving the economy of the nation.
The Committee equally appraised the budget performance of Bureau of Tertiary Institutions, Vocation and Technical Education Board.
Packaged by Hazeez Ayansola
