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Other states should copy Oyo education model –Comm. for Education

Barrister (Dr.) Rahmon Abiodun AbdulRaheem is the Commissioner for Education in Oyo State. Abdulraheem believes that the state has transformed education in recent years, and called on others to see Oyo education model as a good sample. He speaks to Oladipupo Awo jobi in an interview. Excerpts…

Can you tell us some of the achievements of the Oyo State Government in the area of education?

We have had a lot of achievements in the education sector since we got to office in 2019. Governor Seyi Makinde of the state said that education is one of the four cardinal points of his government immediately he got into office. To start with, as soon as he got to office on May 29, 2019, he cancelled all levies in Oyo State schools. Since then we have been buying books for the children, we provide infrastructure facilities for them with conducive classrooms and we give two hours of extra coaching for final year students in secondary schools. We also teach the final year students English Language and Mathematics on Saturdays free of charge.

Our examinations from primary to secondary schools have become better. To add to this, we give students books to read for senior secondary school certificate examinations. We also employed 5,000 teachers through the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) and 1,000 teachers were employed under the State Ministry of Education. After that, we gave the teachers some trainings and we have also done massive repair of the schools in Oyo State. Moreso, have done a lot for higher institutions owned by the state such as Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), we reduced their fees.

LAUTECH has become better and they have more accredited programmes. This also applied to all our higher institutions such as the Polytechnic Ibadan in Eruwa and the College of Education in Lanlate. The state government has done a lot to improve the institutions. We will still do more very soon because our government is concerned so much about education. We were number 26 in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), when we we came, but now we are number 11 in the country. We are still working to go higher.

What is your advice to the governments in Nigeria generally on the standard of education in the country?

Let others come and see what is happening in Oyo State in the area of education. They should come and see how to make the schools conducive for the children with the Oyo State model. Many governments don’t provide books, good classrooms and enough teachers for the children, how then do they want them to perform better. They should come and see how we do in it in Oyo State. Everybody knows that the Oyo State government is for the masses. We have employed more teachers and we make the schools interesting for the students. We pay the teachers regularly and the children are happy to stay in schools. They are now doing well.

What is your advice to the Nigerian students on morals as it is believed that moral standard has fallen?

Good moral is part of the Yoruba culture. We should learn how to address people, how to behave and how to talk to elders. With what we have heard about the likes of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo we should copy their characters and ensure that our students imbibe good morals. With this we will have a society we can all be proud of devoid of all these evil that we hear of almost on a daily basis.

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