Oyo govt hails School Boards for feat in 2017 WASSCE

THE Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Oyo State, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela, has commended the School Governing Boards inaugurated to manage affairs of schools in the state for the recent feat by the state to score 54 per cent in the 2017 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), against 21 per cent in 2015.

Professor Olowofela stated this during a workshop organised by Jericho High School, Ibadan, which was facilitated by the chairman of the School’s Governing Board (SGB), Mr Michael Ale, in Ibadan.

Olowofela said the Senator Abiola Ajimobi’s government’s policy of no automatic promotions in schools had started yielding dividends, noting that this, among other policies, was responsible for the improved performance of the state in the 2017 WASSCE.

He said: “I have been to other SGBs, but Jericho High School’s SGB has been the best in areas of drilling boreholes, training of teachers and building infrastructure.

“Oyo is the intellectual capital of Nigeria, as it is surrounded by higher institutions and best minds; and one of our ways to sustain feats in education was the reason for the aforementioned policies and establishment of Universal Basic Education Trust Fund to make more funds available to run education in the state.”

Commenting on the ban by the state government on primary and secondary school students from using phones in school, Ale said phones and other gadgets are not barriers to learning but a leverage to improve on academic development.

He urged teachers to play major roles in imparting positive knowledge in the school children, noting that due to some parents’ schedule, they have little time to spend with their wards.

“Part of the roles of teachers is to know individual potential of their pupils and understand the learning approach to make them excel in their studies,” he noted.

He said the workshop was a starting point, and that soon, arrangements would be made to take teachers out of the country for training to enhance their capacity building.

Also, principal of JHS, Mrs. Helen Alabi, praised the facilitator of the workshop for his passion for educational development.