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The latest National Examinations Council (NECO) June/July SSCE results released on Friday showed that Ekiti state candidates got the best results in the country.
The state governor, Ayodele Fayose, speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, attributed the feat to the immense efforts he has put in supporting education in the state.
He described the development as heart warming, adding that his administration has so far committed a total of N411.7m to paying a total of 5,130 core subject teachers under the new scheme.
He said the students’ feat was an indication that efforts of his administration to reposition education in the state was already yielding results.
READ Ekiti State leads as NECO releases June/July SSCE results
But reacting, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, while expressing pleasure at the result, claimed credit for the success.
The party attributed the achievement to “the sound education policy of the former Governor Kayode Fayemi, which provided incentives for good learning environment and provision of educational items that enhanced learning among the students”.
The APC said Fayose was claiming unmerited credits for Fayemi’s achievements.
Reacting to the state’s performance, the APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said the current success did not happen overnight but the result of long planning by Fayemi between 2011 and 2014.
The statement added: “Fayemi gave a laptop per child that exposed them to study online and eradicated miracle centres while providing incentive to teachers, including renovation of schools to enhance good learning environment, and also approved special allowances for core subjects and rural postings for teachers.
“Fayemi’s giant strides in education made Ekiti one of the three states in the federation that benefitted from the World Bank’s $50 million State Education Programme Investment Project.
“He renovated 183 secondary schools and 836 primary schools and provided other incentives, including establishment of remedial colleges to cater for out-of-school students in the 16 local governments, which made the state to record 52 per cent credit pass in English and Maths in 2013 while the state also won many firsts in various quiz competitions in the same year, topping it with a student from Ikere High School who won the best male student in WAEC.”
Olatunbosun alleged that Fayose had cancelled Fayemi’s compulsory free primary and secondary education policy and introduced taxes per term while teachers remained unpaid for seven months.
The APC spokesman added that teachers benefited from the relativity pay for all categories of workers in the public service and also benefited from the 27.5 per cent Teachers Pecuniary Allowance, while Ekiti was the first in the South West to implement the relativity pay, bringing the minimum wage from N7,500 to N19,300 without owing teachers salaries.
Below is the state’s WAEC performance between 2016 and 2012 as released by the state:
2016 – 17th
2015 – 11th
2014 – 35th
2013 – 28th
2012 – 22nd
Adelusi’s statement added: “I recall that Mr Fayose was the first Ekiti state governor to organize an Education Summit in 2003 during his first tenure, the result of which was that the state ranked 7th in the country and the first in the South West then.
“It is however unfortunate that the successive administrations failed to follow the trend, hence the failures that greeted such wicked oversight”
Adelusi disclosed that part of the strategies employed by the governor upon being sworn-in for a second term in October 2014 was to introduce special salary for teachers that handle core subjects across the state as well as provided all the required teaching aids in all schools.
The governor’s spokesperson further disclosed that a total of N411.7m had so far been committed to paying a total of 5,130 core subject teachers under the new scheme.
“Governor Fayose did all of these not only to motivate the teachers but to also ensure that the type of students we present for external exams are not half-baked”, he said.