Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Daud Sangodoyin has disclosed that the state government has returned 34 per cent of its out-of-school children population to class and is working towards mopping the rest of the population outside the classroom before the end of the year.
Professor Sangodoyin disclosed at the weekend during the launching and dedication of projects embarked on by Old Students of Ibadan City Academy, Eleta, Ibadan.
Ibadan City Academy was established by a late Ibadan philanthropist, Chief Timothy Lajide Oyesina on the 6th February 1946 and named Ibadan Commercial Academy but renamed Ibadan City Academy in 1960.
Sangodoyin hinted that the state would leave no stone unturned in its move to provide qualitative education without financial burden on parents and guardians and has perfected all preparations towards reintroducing boarding system to public schools while 64,000 units of furniture would soon be distributed to all public schools in the state.
He added that teachers on level 16 to 17 would assume the title of ‘tutor-generals’ while the government would start paying the running cost for the upkeep of public schools from Monday, September 30th 2019.
“Parts of the state education policy is to improve access and participation of our students in academic activities at all levels, be it primary or secondary and since the governor has removed levies hitherto paid by our students and has just approved the payment of running cost to our primary and secondary schools. Also, we are equally working on providing furniture to schools. 64,000 units will soon be distributed to all schools across the state.
“On the out-of-school children, I can assure you that we have 43 per cent of the students back in the classrooms now and we are working to get them all back. We have a plan towards sensitizing the parents and facilitate procedures of mopping the rest of the number back to school from the street and to achieve this, we are going to work with SUBEB and UBEC to actualise this goal.
ALSO READ:Â Hadeja urges lawmakers to use N200m constituency allocation to boost grassroots development
“We are engaging all stakeholders, volunteers, traditional council, leaders of thought and the media to counsel the children wherever they may be found so that they will see the beauty of being back to school for the good of their own future.
“Plans are underway to provide them with uniform, we have free textbooks and notebooks and we are supplying them with feeding to retain their interest after getting them back totally. We all know that poverty contributed to the cause of being outside the school and these items are the major needs that will make them come to school and stay.
“Engineer Seyi Makinde has proved himself and his administration that he does not bluff. He talks and back his talk with actions and this has been exhibited in his stride in education, security, health and workers welfare among other things.”
The Commissioner enjoined school administrators to cooperate with the government in the area of policy actualisation, warning them not to collect money from students for the free textbooks and notebooks provided by the government.
The President-General of Ibadan City Academy Old Students’ Association (ICAOSA), Chief Richard Titiloye who commended the state government for the attention given to quality education, also noted that the alumni association is poised to bring back the lost glory of Ibadan City Academy.
He also added that corporate bodies and school alumni should do more to support the government. Titiloye listed the achievements of the school alumni to include the renovation of Physics, Chemistry, Biology laboratories, the school library and staff rooms.
He said the body earlier renovated 15 classrooms in the school, dug a borehole, employed six teachers, five security staffers and organised training and seminars for teachers in the school, gave scholarship to brilliant but indigent students and scholarship to four average students who are being mentored by special teacher in the school.
“Today we are marching on with our vision to bring back the lost glory of Ibadan City Academy. I know it is not an easy task, inevitably, we will require the full cooperation of the state government to achieve our goals. Our efforts so far as old students are visible and quantifiable. Despite the challenging economic times, we believe our continued investment in the development of students and teachers of the school will move our school to greater academic height in no distant future,” he stated.
and then