Governor Dapo Abiodun to Construct 900 Classrooms, Declares Monday Public Holiday for Schools in Ogun State.
Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has announced his administration’s plan to construct 900 smart classrooms across the state as part of efforts to improve the learning environment for students. This announcement was made in Abeokuta, the state capital, during the celebration of World Teachers’ Day, which took place at the Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta.
In his speech, Governor Abiodun emphasized that the government’s decision to build smart classrooms was in response to growing concerns about students studying in dilapidated buildings. To address this, he has approved the construction of 12 blocks of 900 smart classrooms in each zone of the state, with four schools set to benefit in the first phase. These schools include Abeokuta Grammar School, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta; Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, Ijebu-Ode; Remo Secondary School, Sagamu; and Yewa College, Ilaro.
The governor clarified that the issue of poor classroom conditions is not due to a lack of funds, pointing to the Ogun State Education Intervention Fund as a key initiative by his administration to ensure funding for education. He also refuted claims that the state had failed to pay its counterpart fund to access Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funding, instead blaming his predecessor for the lapse.
“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,” the governor explained.
He went on to say, “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. My second observation was that despite all these interventions, every now and then, you would see an Ogun State school in the news. You would see Ogun State learners sitting on 9-inch blocks and learning in schools without roofs, despite the fact that we have accessed UBEC or SUBEB funding.”
Governor Abiodun further revealed that the state had launched a review of the school construction program, establishing a task force led by the Head of Service to identify the worst-affected schools in the state. “I am glad to tell you that the exercise has now been completed, and I had to personally call the UBEC Chairman and tell him that we had to rework our work plan and that work plan had to reflect our peculiarities in Ogun State. We must not have schools that are not conducive for academic planning anymore,” he concluded.
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