Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Prof. Salihu Adelabu, on Tuesday, said that the Governor Seyi Makinde led administration is working towards the path of reducing the numbers of out of school children in the state by ten percent.
Adelabu said this at a 3-Day Support Mission Organized by the Oyo State Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology for three BESDA AF- TESS Beneficiary States, that is Oyo, Adamawa and Kastina, in Collaboration with the World Bank at the University of Ibadan.
The Commissioner, explained that all school aged children are expected to have access to quality education, irrespective of their background.
He hinted that the government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that residents have access to quality education, thereby improving numeracy and literacy levels in the state.
While enumerating the importance of the BESDA – AF- TESS project, Prof. Salihu Adelabu said the programme is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal four and Seventeen, that by 2030, education should be for all.
He said further: “This BESDA Additional Financing is targeting four major points. First is access, there should be school for all, all the school aged children accommodate all the school aged children must be in the school
The other one is quality; that is why we are strengthening the system, we are putting a lot of things in place to make sure that there is access, there is quality and there is improvement in our numeracy and literacy level in the state”
“In the last administration of Governor Seyi Makinde, 20 percent of our out of school children were back in school, and we are working around 10 percent because we want that to be reduced drastically ”
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development., Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Garba Tella, said concerted Efforts would be made so that the aims and objectives of the program development partners in Adamawa State comes into fruition.
He expressed gratitude to the World Bank for supporting the government of Adamawa State in its determined efforts in providing the children the right access to acquire quality education, no matter where they live .
“This project is a performance-based project, two indicators were given to us in Adamawa, and we are happy to partner with the World Bank.
“Fundamentally, we want a situation whereby there won’t be any child in the state, that is out of school, there won’t be any school without a teacher”
Also speaking, Education Specialist, World Bank, Martin De Simone, hinted that three states are beneficiaries of the intervention project, that is Oyo , Adamawa and Kastina states.
He added that the programme was targeted at improving the quality of teaching and learning in basic schools, providing infrastructure and increasing the numbers of classrooms.
He advised participating states to learn from each other and focus largely on how to achieve results within the program life span.
In his remark, Dr Bamidele Odekunle, Oyo State Project Coordinator, said the aim of the project was to reduce the figure of out-of-school children and equally improve the pedagogical skills of the teachers that will train them.
He said: “We believe it is of no use if we bring back children to school without teachers. So, the first aim is to bring them back to school and the second is to improve the skills of the teachers. And, in the three states, there was a parent BESDA, which was rounded off about two years ago. But at the end of the day, these three states were picked by additional funding by the Global Partnership for Education. And the Oyo State being the only state in the entire Southern Nigeria, they called the three states including Adamawa and Katsina.
“In these three states, it is aimed that we have over a million children should be mopped from the street to come back to school. At intervals, we meet to dissect what the milestone is and how far we have achieved the objective of the project. We have had one in Adamawa, another one in Katsina and, today, it is the turn of Oyo State.
“I want to say that the project has added immeasurable value to Education in Oyo State. We will start moving round to sensitize the people on the importance of sending their wards round school very soon.”
