Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the governor of Ekiti State has said that his government will continue to make public schools attractive to all children of school age and improve access to standard and qualitative education in the State.
The Governor who stated this at the commissioning of newly built blocks of classrooms in some parts of the state during the week, revealed that his administration had paid matching grant of ₦7.84 billion to cover for the period between 2015 and 2021 and had initiated over 400 basic school projects in the last five months.
The Governor who was represented by the First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi at the St John’s Nursery and Primary School, Aramoko- Ekiti said that part of the multiple pronged approach that his administration introduced to tackle the problems militating against access of children to free qualitative basic education included the abrogation of payment of fees and levies in all public primary and secondary schools in the state.
Others, according to the Governor, include “the introduction of an aggressive training and retraining programme of under which over 15,000 teachers, school administrators and school support officers have been trained in the last three years.
Governor Fayemi maintained that his intervention programme in the education sector had begun to have positive multiple ripple effects on the education sector.
He said enrollment in public Primary Schools in the State had increased from 106, 271 in 2018 to 141,982 in 2021 while that of public Secondary schools increased from 84,146 in 2018 to 109,140 in 2021 and from 700 to 2,021 for Technical Education.
Other positive records included the excellent performance of pupils in public primary school in recent common entrance and placement examinations as well as the ability of public teachers in the state to compete excellently well with their counterparts in other part of the world.
“You will recall that last year we celebrated the fact that an Ekiti teacher from Amoye Grammar School, Ikere Ekiti emerged the National Best Teacher of the year 2020. This year again, Ekiti State produced the first runner up in the Best secondary school teacher category and came second in the best public primary school as well as in the best private school category in Nigeria.
“As we inaugurate this block of classrooms for use today, I want to state emphatically the commitment of my administration to make our schools more attractive to children of school age through the introduction of pupil friendly initiatives as well as the teaching of practical agricultural, entrepreneurship and sporting activities that would make our pupils have all round skills. He added.
Earlier in his welcome address, Chairman, Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board, (EKSUBEB), Prof Femi Akinwumi disclosed that in the last three years under UBEC/SUBEB Intervention project, 120 blocks of new classrooms had been constructed with 208 blocks of water system VIP toilets.
He added that over 215 perimeter fencing had been instituted and 86 motorized boreholes drilled in schools across the state while 423 blocks of classrooms had been renovated and 585 units of merry-go-round has been supplied.
Commending Governor Fayemi for remaining resolute in ensuring that all school age children have access to qualitative education by removing all barriers, Prof Akinwunmi said 305 units of swings and over 20,000 units of teachers and pupils’ furniture had been supplied to schools in the last three years.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
