Adefioye Iyunade
The Universal Basic Education Board, Oyo State chapter, has ruled out the possibility of reintroducing the N3,000 development levy to assist the government in the running of schools by the current administration in the state.
The Chairman, Dr. Nureni Adeniran, in an interview, said the state was not considering the reintroduction of a levy that would be at variance with the free education campaign promise of Governor Seyi Makinde.
According to him, the current government took care of the N3,000 development levy that was scrapped with the payment of running grants to schools.
He said: “Every government comes with its own programmes and policies. The re-introduction of N3,000 levy into the school system is not something this government is considering.
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“This is because the government is already paying running grants to schools that will cover that aspect. The government has taken it upon itself, in fulfilment of his electioneering campaign, not to collect any money from any pupil.
“We do not want a situation whereby some student will be denied the opportunity of receiving quality education because of the economic circumstances of their parents.
“Some of us enjoyed free education and the governor said he was also a product of free education programme of Chief Bola Ige and to the glory of God, he is governor today.
“This government is not considering that because that will be at variance with the electioneering promises made by the governor,” Adeniran said.
Asked about the implementation of Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) in the state, Adeniran said over 5,000 out-of-school children had been added to the enrolment number in the state’s public primary schools.
He added that the implementation of BESDA would soon see Alamjiris and street hawkers attracted to schooling.
Adeniran explained that the state had identified centres across 21 local government areas in the state where Almajiris and hawkers will be trained.
He pointed out that the centres would become operational as soon as training for teachers to man the centres is concluded.
On improving students’ performance, Adeniran disclosed that the state would from next session have Reading and Writing as separate periods on schools’ timetables.
This is as he said that Open Day, where students, teachers and parents meet, would be also be introduced from the coming session.
Adeniran also said that SUBEB is responsible for the welfare of teachers, pupils and infrastructure in the public primary schools across the state, while the Ministry of Education is responsible for policymaking, time table and calendar of events of academics in the state.
“We are always on ground to monitor the academic activities of our schools, we used to go around on monitoring tour during examinations, we were on tour during the resumption of school after the Covid-19 compulsory break to access the level of compliance of our teachers and pupils,” he said.
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