Education
The Oyo State Government on Friday called for collaboration among stakeholders to bring back out-of-school-children and monitor them for the development of education in the state.
Prof. Daud Shangodoyin, the Commissioner for Education, stated this in Ibadan at a sensitisation programme for stakeholders on Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).
Shangodoyin in his address urged participants at the event to join hands with the government to achieve its set goals on education.
“The Oyo State anthem says it all, we all need is to cooperate to bring back out of school children, knowledge is key, even God said this in the holy books.
“In view of this, World Bank, Universal Basic Education and Oyo state government collaborated to bring BESDA initiative.
“We want all of us to work to identify where these children are, persuade and bring them to the fold as well as monitor them to progress in their studies.
“Mokola and Iwo bridges for instance are flash points where these children are found, if we bring them in from these places, we will build a good future for them.
“Let us all work together and bring these children back, some may have even outgrown primary school level, there is provision to adequately absorb them in various centres built for the purpose of this programme.
“We can work together to place them properly. If you neglect these children, they will pose danger to your wards in the future.
“Education allocation has been increased to 22 percent and Gov. Makinde has pledged to keep supporting the sector,” he said.
He noted that the government was doing a lot to improve infrastructure and would distribute 64,000 chairs in all schools before the end of 2019.
Dr Nureni Adeniran, the Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in his address enlightened the stakeholders on the reasons for high number of out of school children in the state.
“Some of the reasons are due to long distance from home to school, lack of parental monitoring, street begging, child labour and unwanted teenage pregnancy,” he said.
He stressed the need for them to educate their wards to be useful to the society and family.
“There will be designated centres to train out of school children who are above primary and secondary levels in the state. We don’t want them to loiter around during school hours.
“For those at the Islamic centres and traditional centres, we will introduce western education to them at their various centres.
“Poverty, divorce, illiteracy and past government policies on education led to the increase in the number of out-of-school children over the time.
“This made Oyo state to be ranked 26th in education performance chart in Nigeria, hence the various government initiatives to make the state a pace setter that it should be,’’ he said.
Adeniran noted that the present administration had taken steps to correct the anomalies in the education sector through various programmes.
“The governor has given free education at all levels to reduce the incidence of drop out in schools and increase enrollment in schools.
“Provision of exercise books for secondary school students, running grants for both primary and secondary schools students and payment of examination fee for students except for WAEC and NECO fees that will be paid by the parents.
“Government also made provision for past questions compendium and free extramural lessons for final year students at both public and private sector.
“All these are to reposition the education sector in the state,” Adeniran said.(NAN)
– Dec. 21, 2019 @ 12:05 GMT |
Tags: Oyo seeks stakeholders’ collaboration on implementation of BESDA
