Yemisi Izuora
Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, has ordered the immediate renovation of blocks of classrooms and supply of furniture to St John Secondary School, Ode-Aje, Aremo, Ibadan and other worst-hit schools in the metropolis.
The governor, who made the order during an on-the-spot assessment to St. John’s School Aremo, Ode-Aje, Ibadan, said government will try its best to ensure that the schools are fixed as quickly as possible.
A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, quoted the governor as saying that the terrible condition of classrooms in the school would be addressed as quickly as possible.
He also noted that other public schools in the state with deplorable facilities would be addressed soonest to improve the quality of education in the state.
He said: “This is absolutely unacceptable. We will try our best to ensure that the situation is fixed as quickly as possible. The commissioner is here. The TESCOM Chairman and the Permanent Secretary, TESCOM, are also here.
“I am going to engage the community leaders once I get outside. If there are carpenters in this neighborhood, they will make chairs for you immediately. If there are bricklayers here as well, they will fix this.”
The governor added that the education sector has suffered a massive discount in the last couple of years, noting that the kind of terrible condition met in the school couldn’t have happened overnight or suddenly, as things got progressively worse.
He further said that the state government had been working round the clock to uproot some cartels trying to sabotage the administration’s free education policy.
Governor Makinde stated that the policy is being resisted in some quarters by those who benefitted from the corruption of past years through acts of internal sabotage, noting that his administration would be decisive in dealing with the remnants of the corrupt cartel.
He reiterated that his administration would guarantee qualitative education for children of the state, adding that the intervention on the worst-hit schools was just on the basis of exigency and that a holistic approach to solving this infrastructural deficit is already in motion, because, according to him, the massive rot in the education sector could not be changed overnight.
The governor assured the students that his administration would ensure lack of infrastructure do not affect their academic pursuit.
The Commissioner for Education, Barrister Olasunkanmi Olaleye; chairman of the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM); Pastor Akin Alamu and the Permanent Secretary, TESCOM, Mrs. Grace Oderinde, were part of the government officials present during the inspection.