The improved status of Oyo State within the National educational index after the Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) Assessment from about 28 to the first 11 in the performance of students in public primary schools has been attributed to strict monitoring of schools in terms of teaching and learning.
This was disclosed by the Chairman Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Nureni Aderemi Adeniran while presenting to the people of the state what his agency has been able to achieve so far since he came into the office over a year ago.
The scholar listed the agency’s achievements while having a media parley with some section of the media during the week in his office where he promised to do more in the education sector of the state.
He claimed to have swung into action with his team immediately he was appointed on June 24, 2019 by the Governor of the State, Engr. Seyi Makinde and between then till date, the agency has recorded so many success stories in areas of infrastructural development, saying there were some projects it met at foundation level that the agency has been able to complete.
“The first thing I did was to study the list of projects that were ongoing, and I went on a tour of the 33 local government areas to assess the situation on ground from where we summoned the contractors who had abandoned the projects awarded by the previous administration to come back to the various projects sites and complete them.
“Out of about 54 abandoned projects left by the past administration, within our first hundred days in office, we were able to complete seven of them and they were commissioned by Governor Seyi Makinde, while before the Governor’s first year in office, we were able to complete about 25 model schools”, Adeniran explained.
He further stated that “Apart from this issue, we have been engaging in regular monitoring of our schools in terms of teaching and learning, to the extent that our index has improved at the national level.
“The SDG in their assessment has rated Oyo better than what it used to be two years ago when we fell to about 28th position on the list, but we are now between first to 11th in the performance of our students in public primary schools”.
Adeniran, however, dispelled insinuations in some quarters that the current administration will reintroduce the N3,000 development levy to assist the government in the running of schools.
He said the state is not in any way considering the reintroduction of a levy that will be at variance with the free education campaign promise of Governor Seyi Makinde, saying the current government is sending running grants to schools and thereby does not need to reintroduce the N3,000 development levy that was scrapped.
Packaged by Olanrewaju Agiri
