The Oyo Education Trust Fund was launched on Tuesday with Governor Abiola Ajimobi explaining that the fund was inevitable because the tradition of government funding education alone was no longer feasible and had become outdated.
Ajimobi who spoke at the event held at International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, added that collaborative funding, that is involvement of the public, in education, was expedient because the government had inadequate resources to match its needs.
He emphasized that the fund would go a long way to build more school infrastructure, revamp the education sector, help in acquiring various equipment to advance science and technology and purchase monitoring vans for the supervision of schools.
Ajimobi consequently charged the citizens of the state to help uplift the education sector and return the state to its prideful place in education as of the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, through their donations.
“The long tradition of government funding education is no longer feasible and outdated. Education cannot be left to government alone and we must make education the concern of everyone.”
“To refuse to engage the public in public policy is to deny the state of a reasonable part of its resources beyond compare. The launching of ETf is to make education the concern of all of us and ensure that we take pragmatic efforts to fund it. The future of Nigeria will not be determined by states with oil or solid minerals but by those with cutting edge.
“The leading countries today are leading not because of their natural resources but because they have the best of brains. They have the mind and the right attitude. Since the resources that we have do not match the resources that we need, we must take more steps to get to where we desire. We must think out of the box. Oyo ETF is, therefore, a crucial step in restoring the legacy of the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo who laid example to follow,” Ajimobi said.
Ajimobi also acknowledged the contribution of stakeholders towards the state having a 54.4 percent past rate in the 2017 West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE), which was the best in the last eighteen years.
The event saw Ajimobi award scholarships to the two best students of the state who came first and second in the 2017 West Africa Secondary School Examination (WASCE) as well as free admission to Technical University, Ibadan.
The students are Miss Irabor Isabelle and Master Adekunle Oluwatoni Adedigba of Oritamefa Baptist Model School.
The Chairman of ETF, (Dr) Mrs Onikepo Akande in her speech assured that the outcome of the Trust Fund will usher in a new dawn for education in the State, lamenting the poor state of educational facilities and personnel in the State.
She called on members of the public to sacrifice their resources for the education of their children and the revamp of the education sector.
She decried the loss of values, virtues, principles, and practices in today’s students as of old, assuring that the fund will improve the sector.
Akande assured of the judicious application of the funds gathered.
“Education is very critical to the progress of any nation. In the past, education was taken with a high degree of seriousness to the extent that some facilities had to sacrifice one thing or the other to educate their children.
“It is however a sad development to note that the state of education in this same part of the country has become so poor that we cannot be seen to be setting any pace in education as it used to be in the past.
“It is in view of the need to resuscitate the lost glory and the improvement of the quality of education in the State that Governor Ajimobi initiated the idea of the fund and we promise to be prudent with the funds,” she added.
Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela assured that the funds would largely help reposition the education sector.
In his remarks, Oba Rilwan Akinolu of noted that the ETF would bring back the fortune of education in Oyo State.
“I had a good education here in Ibadan at Sabo Memorial School. I visited the school on Monday and the state I met the school is not encouraging. So, with this gesture by the state government, education will be restored to a good state,” Akiolu said.
The event saw captains of industries, eminent personalities, heads of corporate organizations, traditional rulers, philanthropists and members of the political class donate to the Oyo ETF.
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