Oyo State government at the weekend said it has realised about N5 billion direct investment injected into public primary and secondary schools education one year after the introduction of School Governing Boards (SGB) in the state.
The government said the objective of establishing
SGB, which is to provide management functions for secondary schools and meet performance targets, is bearing much fruits.
Participatory management of schools under the SGBs introduced a year ago, though, met violent resistance, the government said it has been vindicated by the success story of the SGBs.
The Nation quoted the state commissioner of education, science and technology, Professor Joseph Adeniyi Olowofela, who was elated by benefits accrued from the policy, as saying that the SGB has brought massive infrastructural development in the education sector a year after it was introduced.
The SGB , which he said is based on international best practices, is like a tsunami and a revolution that people and corporate organisations embraced, adding that the achievement recorded just a year after it took off was beyond expectations.
He added that the policies on education sector continue to serve as strategic framework for improving quality and performance in the education.
Without being immodest, the commissioner said, the investment from the SGBs cannot be less than N3billion in the last one year from old students and corporate organisations.
Giving the breakdown, Professor Olowofela said “the education development levy of N1000 stays with the boards. So, if you have 420,000 students, multiply by N1000; that is N420million multiplied by three, that is about N1.2billion.
Those are the ones coming indirectly from the students to the boards. But in terms of what old students are putting into the schools, it cannot be less than N5billion. I am not talking about government efforts; don’t forget that the government in the last two weeks has awarded contract for the renovation and rehabilitation of 100 out of the 628 schools to the tune of about N2billion.