Ondo state governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu said over N13 billion has been expended both by the state government and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to heighten education standard in the state.
Governor Akeredolu disclosed this while receiving the Chairman, Governing Board of UBEC, Ugwueri Osondu and his team who paid a working visit to him in his office in Akure. He revealed that the funds have impacted positively on education development in the state in terms of infrastructure and school enrolments.
Akeredolu who was represented by his deputy, Agboola Ajayi, explained that over 500 schools across the state have witnessed transformation through the funds received from the Commission and the state counterpart funding through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
According to the governor, the education sector, especially the basic education which the funds were meant for is now better than he met it when his administration came in, just as he applauded the Chairman of SUBEB, Princess Oladunni Odu for doing good work in the board.
Akeredolu who noted that his administration’s intervention in the sector has greatly reduced out of school children in the state, adding that his government would continue to improve the high standard of education which Ondo State is noted for.
The governor also commended the Federal Government through UBEC for the continued support by providing the funds, saying UBEC team would appreciate all the good jobs done by SUBEB in the state after inspecting the projects.
Akeredolu added that the government was doing its best with a series of projects to address huge infrastructural deficit and drastically reduce numbers of drop out students in the state.
On the recruitment of teachers, Akeredolu said the process of employing teachers in the state was ongoing and would soon materialise.
Akeredolu lauded UBEC for its supportive role when the state needed to pay her counterpart fund and asked for more collaboration with the government to meet up their mandate.
Earlier, the Chairman UBEC Governing Board, Ugwueri Osondu, said the team were on advocacy visit and to find out if the programmes carried out by the Commission in the state are done according to specification.
He informed the governor that the Commission was concerned about the out of school children and sought the efforts of the state government to address the situation.
Osondu further added that the team were in the state to inspect the various UBEC projects across the three senatorial districts of the state, just as he encouraged the state government to continue work for hand in glove with the Commission to be able to access more funds.
The UBEC Chairman who promised to continue to work with the government to further improve education standard in the state also emphasised the need for the government to employ more teachers to fill spaces in the schools and also to take the issue of e-Library serious.
Also, the SUBEB Chairman, Princess Oladunni Odu, stressed that the SUBEB has judiciously and effectively utilised the funds available to it.
“For 2013-2016 we are able to do 519 projects cutting across all the 18 Local Government Areas. In every Local Government, you will see at least nothing less than 20 projects of SUBEB covering new construction, renovation, provision of boreholes, construction of perimeter fencing, provision of computers, provision of pupils furniture and teachers furniture.
“And in the new one, 2019 to June this year, we have executed 314 projects. So, Ondo state under Arakunrin is doing beautifully well in the basic education sector because he believes in a solid education,” Odu emphasised.
