Education has improved tremendously in Oyo — Adeniran, SUBEB chair

Dr Nureni Aderemi Adeniran, a former chairman of Ibadan South West Local Government and Commissioner for Education, is the current chairman of Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). In this interview with MODUPE GEORGE, he speaks on the activities of the board, state of public schools and reasons teachers should be more committed to the work.

RECENTLY, you spoke publicly about the ongoing promotion exercise of public school teachers in the state. How has it been?

We have distributed letters to all the teachers in the state and about 16,549 teachers have been given their letters of promotion. We did some symbolic presentations whereby we invited some of the teachers to collect their letters directly from us at the SUBEB office. Meanwhile, the remaining letters were given to the Local Government Universal Basic Education Commission to distribute to those who were not part of the symbolic presentation. The report we have now is that every teacher in the state has been invited to their local government headquarters to collect their letters. I can authoritatively say that letters of promotion between 2017 and 2020, which were approved by Governor Seyi Makinde for public primary school teachers in the state, have been handed over to them.

 

What about their counterparts in secondary school?

Secondary school teachers have equally collected their letters from the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM); we are dealing with the primary school teachers.

 

There is no doubt that basic education has suffered a lot of neglect in recent times. What is the state of basic education right now in the state?

Basic education in the state today has improved tremendously compared to what it was before we came on board. As at the time we came on board, Oyo State, in the education sector, was ranked in the 27th position, but right now, according to the agencies that are saddled with such tasks, we have moved from the 27th to the 11th position. We are hopeful that we will continue to improve till we get to the unit positions and possibly get to the top.

In terms of standards and quality, we have improved tremendously. We have strengthened the monitoring aspect of public school education because when we initially came on board, we discovered that not much had been done in this regard. So, we put up a serious monitoring exercise towards school resumption, compliance during the course of the work and up to the period of examination. Also, we monitor ongoing projects in schools. For instance, we might just decide to show up in any school in any part of the state at any time. We have realised that the missing link was the effective monitoring of some of the issues we are having in the public schools.

 

Have there ever been instances where you have to sanction defaulting schools or personnel during your monitoring exercise?

Yes, there are. For example, at one community school at Ado-Awaye, some teachers were found under the tree discussing when they were supposed to be working. There was a time we suspended about 13 head teachers, assistant head mistresses and teachers when we visited some of these schools. Thereafter, we pardoned them and gave them stern warning. So, that is the reason I said monitoring is the missing link which we have brought back into the school system.

We also have improved on the provision of infrastructure in our schools. After we came on board, we have completed more than 50 model schools across different local governments both at the public primary schools and junior secondary school levels. However, we have a limitation to the percentage of work that can be done in the public junior secondary schools sector. We have improved on that and to the glory of God, we have been having school renovations, erecting new buildings along with the provision of school furniture for pupils\students across the state. More so, the state government has been so faithful with funds for the execution of the projects. The state government has paid for 2018 and 2019 school projects. We have completed work on the 2018 projects, while that of 2019 is ongoing. The government has also paid for the 2020 and 2021 school projects, though we are to receive the money for the 2020 projects. The money for 2021 school projects will be released any moment from now, so that we can continue with the work.

 

Where are these model schools or new school buildings erected in the state? They seem not so visible with dilapidated public schools everywhere?

They are erected in the existing schools. It is either we demolish the dilapidated structure and build a model school or if the school has enough land, we build on a new land, but they are erected on the same old school lands. We have some of them in Methodist Primary School, Bodija; Emmanuel College, Islamic Primary School, Onikokoro, Lagelu Local Government; Muslim Grammar School (Junior school), Celestial High School, Joyce B Road, Ibadan; Elewura High School, Challenge, while we have others in Oyo, Iseyin, Ogbomoso, Ipapo, Igbeti, among others. This is to say that we are working. The projects are carried out on an annual basis and the level of work we are able to do depends on the approval we are given; there are principles and guidelines to follow too. For instance, 35 per cent of whatever we are doing must go to the junior secondary schools, 60 per cent to primary schools and five per cent to pre-primary schools, that is, the early childhood education. We cannot go beyond these guidelines. If we do, we will be sanctioned.

 

Are the schools which are really in need of government interventions the ones getting the help?

The schools are all ours and the ones we are attending to also are the ones in dire need of help. Sometimes, we may have 50 schools requesting government’s attention but we can only attend to 10 at a time. So, when the opportunity comes again, we may pick another 10. That is how we are doing it.

 

What is your board doing about the issue of running grants for public primary schools?

It has not always been like that; they were being given running grants sometimes ago. However, presently, we are having a minor issue in that regard, which is being resolved.

 

How have you improved on the quality of teaching and learning that is going on in the public schools, most especially at the basic level?

We have greatly improved on our standard and quality assurance. Like I said earlier, we pick and move around randomly to monitor schools across the zones to check on the teaching and learning that are going on in order to ensure absolute compliance. We check teachers’ lesson plans, what they have on the chalkboards and equally the notes of the learners to see if there is any discrepancy among the different components of the teaching and learning. We have also introduced reading and writing into the timetable of the public primary schools, in order to expose the pupils to reading and writing, because we discovered that even some of the students in secondary schools cannot read and write very well. When we move around the schools, we randomly pick learners to read. We monitor this as they are being implemented and we have been getting positive reports.

 

We talk about enhancing teaching and learning with technology in this time and age, but public schools are nowhere to be found. Does this not bother your board?

We have ICT centres in some of our public primary schools. All our modern schools have computer rooms, but not all of them have computers yet. However, some of them have been given computers and the students are learning. We have started with the primary schools, so, we are moving on gradually. All these things are capital-intensive and you and I know that even if the entire budget of the Oyo State is dedicated to education, it will still not be enough. I have to give kudos to the Oyo State government for dedicating up to 20 per cent of the state budget allocation to education. No student is paying tuition in Oyo State as of today and some of the secondary school students do receive text books. In the same vein, the local government, which is in charge of primary schools, has also been giving textbooks to the pupils.

 

Some schools of thought have questioned the sustainability of what the state government is doing in the aspect of free education, payments of 13th salaries to teachers, and the likes, based on past experiences. What is your take on this?

Whoever is saying that is an enemy of progress. Why should all the government efforts in this regard not be sustained? Some of them enjoyed free education in their own days, why don’t they want the children to enjoy the same now? The governor said he was a product of a free education of Chief Bola Ige and now that he is the governor of the state, what will it cost him to provide free education for other people’s children? So, there is nothing like that; it all depends on the mindset. And when there is a will there’s a way. The governor is determined and deliberate about what he is doing in terms of education in the state.

The governor said he was going to be paying salaries on the 25th of every month and he has been doing that for close to 30months now and someone is saying he will soon be tired. He has been paying 13months’ salary regularly, he paid it in 2019, 2020, this 2021.

My advice to public school teachers in the state, who are the benefactors of the governor’s large heartedness, is to be dedicated and show more commitment to their work especially now that the government is regularly paying their salaries. The government is concerned about their welfare. The government has also implemented their promotions even before we came on board. Therefore, it is required of the teachers to show more commitment to their work and not play truancy.

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