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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has said the downward slope all the key sectors of the economy, including education, have been experiencing since the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde came on board in 2019, is unacceptable and worrisome.
Oyo APC’s reaction came against the backdrop of the reported delisting of 50 secondary schools in the state by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for their involvement in examination malpractices during the the 2022 West African Senior School Certificate examination.
A statement made available to newsmen in Ibadan on Sunday by the Oyo APC Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, said that the delisting of 50 schools by WAEC was unprecedented as it was a clear manifestation of the rot in the system and the gloomy future awaiting the state if nothing was done urgently to arrest the situation.
“Little did the people realise that Oyo Atate had got into the wrong hands when the present PDP administration of Gov. Seyi Makinde began to paint a picture of success in the education sector at an early stage when they ought to have outline policies and programmes capable of improving the standard they met on ground. Gov. Makinde and some sponsored agents went to town to mislead the world with wrong information.
“At a point, they repeatedly fed the world with lies about people from United Kingdom, United States, Canada among other develop nations bringing their children and wards for enrollment in Oyo State because, according to them, the superman in the governor had turned all the public primary and secondary schools into ivy league colleges when, in fact, the only thing done was the sensational cancellation of N1,000 per term payment by students in secondary schools- an idea initiated by Abiola Ajimobi’s administration to aid the laudable activities of the School Governing Boards.
“The Makinde administration would do well by saving the public the ubiquitous noise of prompt payment of monthly salary to school teachers when critical infrastructure, personnel training and retraining, effective control and supervision as well as funding are lacking. We have also observed that suitable persons are not allowed to run the affairs of the education ministry in the state while the consultant imposed on tertiary institutions does more harm to the system.
“Population of pupils increase everyday but there are no new classrooms as most of the new structures around are either built by the Universal Basic Education (UBEC) or facilitated from Abuja by federal lawmakers and influential individuals like Dr. Yunus Akintunde. Most public schools are without security and hemp-smoking miscreants make incursion at will while teachers and students are exposed to danger unnecessarily.
“Lastly, we urge Gov. Makinde to bury the idea of making heads of the affected schools scapegoats because they are not largely responsible for the embarrassing development which portends gloom for the future of our dear state. If anything, the PDP administration should blame itself and be courageous enough to immediately organize an Education Summit where all the problems would be discussed and way forward proffered.,” Sadare added.
