Olayinka Olukoya reviews the activities of the Senator Ibikunle Amosun- led government in the education sector seven months after his inauguration as the fourth elected governor of the Gateway State. Her reportsIN his mission to rebuild Ogun State, made public at his inauguration held at the MKO Abiola International Stadium, Kuto, Abeokuta, on 29 May, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, said that the five-point agenda of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), would be vigorously pursued in the overall interest of residents of the state.He pointed out that the education sector in the state was comatose considering the level of decay in infrastructure in the state owned schools.He said, 'Our educational system in the state is in crisis. It appears that our public schools were deliberately destroyed so as to justify government abdication of its responsibilities to educate the citizens, feigning inability to shoulder the attendant financial requirements as the basis.'My belief is that education is a social service which in the end serves the public good. Now, where in the world is education treated as purely a profit making venture' Many pupils and students are dropping out of school as a result of ill-conceived policies; many of them are excluded from going to schools of their choice.'I will make sure that all our public schools can effectively compete with their and are conducive to teaching and learning``.These promises are fast becoming a reality, as so many steps had since been taken since the inception of the administration. One of such steps is the renovation of over 100 dilapidated classrooms across the three senatorial districts in the state.The benefiting schools are now wearing a new look, conducive for teaching and learning process. This has cost the state government about N284, 508,409.00.The state government in the pursuit of its free qualitative education policy had also distributed instructional materials to schools for the use of pupils and students in both public primary and secondary schools in the state.Each pupil and student had writing materials, including exercise books, ball-point pens and pencils, mathematical sets for those in the Senior Secondary School level and textbooks on core subjects.The State Commissioner for Education, Mr Segun Odubela, during the inauguretion of the distribution of the materials, said that the exercise would facilitate effective teaching and learning process in the school system.Odubela said that the distribution of instructional materials, such as exercise books, pencils, biros and essential textbooks free of charge to all pupils of the public and secondary schools in the state valued at N1.8 billion, was to further uphold the glory of the state.About 631,179 students in public secondary schools had so far benefited from the free education policy scheme.He added that the state would explore all necessary mechanism to ensure that all children in the state enjoyed and benefited from the free education programme of the government.Other areas of intervention by the state government in the sector included the payment of N17,276.484m half 3rd term 2010/2011 running cost of secondary schools; the release of N271,648.750.00 for the payment of last year and this year May/June WAEC examinations.The state government also recently released N1, 924,900 as running cost grant to seven government technical colleges in the state.To underscore the commitment of the present administration to education, the sector had the lion's share in the 2012 budget with an allocation of N41.48bn which represents 22 per cent of the total budget.This was done so as to meet up with the standard of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), that stipulates that government must earmark nothing less than 26 per cent of its budget size yearly to education.Senator Amosu while reading the budget proposal to the House of Assembly some weeks back, said that some key project such as sustenance of the provision of free and qualitative education at primary and secondary school levels; construction of additional buildings in public educational institutions in a bid to decongest some over-populated schools and classrooms, would be embarked on by his government.Others include embarking on massive renovation/maintenance of dilapidated structures in our schools and supply of furniture to enhance students' enrolment, retention and performance.The government also planned to estsblish five model secondary schools with hostel facilities in the three senatorial districts of the state with the aim of developing key expertise in specific areas by brilliant students.The governor also said that his administration would ensure continuous human capacity development of teachers and inspectors of education through requisite training, monitoring and development.Amosun added that his government would also construct 50 new secondary schools in addition to the ones on the ground, as part of schools rehabilitation programmes;promotion of skills acquisition /entrepreneurial training; regular payment of running cost and grant to all public secondary schools and technical colleges.These, among others, are the agenda of the present administration in the state which had started yielding positive results in less than seven months that the government came on board.
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