The Ogun State governor has explained why, in spite of the existence of intervention funds such as the Ogun State Education Intervention Fund, the state’s schools are regularly featured in the media for having inadequate facilities.
Abiodun revealed that he came to the realization that, in order to avoid ongoing humiliation, the state needed to select the worst of the worst schools.
During the celebration of Teachers’ Day this year at the Cultural Center, Kuto, Abeokuta, on Saturday, Abiodun revealed this information.
He authorized the building of 12 blocks with 900 smart classrooms in four schools in each zone throughout the state in observance of Teachers’ Day.
The four schools that would benefit are Yewa College in Ilaro, Remo Secondary School in Sagamu, Ijebu-Ode Grammar School in Ijebu-Ode, and Abeokuta Grammar School in Idi-Aba, Abeokuta. The governor enumerated the Central Education Management Information System’s construction for data collection, analysis, and presentation, as well as the Ogun Digitalized Multimedia Lesson Plan, which would provide teachers with the tools they need to deliver efficiently digitized and centralized lesson plans.
Abiodun lists the approval of the Ogun State Education Intervention Fund, the successful implementation of Optical Mark Reader sheets during the BECE, and the installation of ICT infrastructure in anticipation of the launch of the Nigeria Learning Passport for e-content as additional accomplishments.
On why his administration did not access the 2020 UBEC funds, the governor said: “You recall that when I assumed office, this state had not accessed the 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 funds. Shortly after I assumed office, we paid the counterpart funding for those four years, and we accessed the funding. The current funding we are implementing is for 2018 and 2019.
“What I noticed is that most of the contracts were abandoned because of inflation; the pricing was not realistic. That was my number one observation.
In order to allow teachers to observe the day, the governor also approved Monday, October 6, 2024, as a work-free day.
In addition, he declared that 1,000 more teachers had been absorbed into the State Teaching Service Commission, bringing the total number of teachers absorbed into the commission to 5,000 since the administration’s start.
The governor went on to say that in order to offer special school students a sense of community, permission has been granted for renovations to be made to all special schools as well as an increase in their feeding allowance.
Recognizing that educators play a crucial role in shaping the attitudes of future generations, Abiodun decided to replace the days off that other state government employees now receive with transportation allowances for all public school teachers.
