Ondo has 240,000 out-of-school children, says SUBEB boss

The Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board says the state has no fewer than 240,000 out-of-school children.

The board, however, expressed worry over the rate at which children are out of school in the state, describing it as alarming.

Rt. Hon. Victor Olabimtan, the Chairman of the Ondo SUBEB, made this disclosure at an interactive session with some journalists in the state.

Olabimtan noted that the state government was making efforts to stop the menace.

Said he: “From the statistics, Ondo has 240,000 out-of-school children. This is alarming. But it is not happening only in Ondo State, that is how the problem is in other states of the federation.”

Olabimtan, however, stated that the government has put in place some measures to ensure all children of the state are educated.

According to him, part of the measures is the plan to employ more teachers in the primary schools and make the school attractive to the pupils.

He stated that a total of 900 public primary schools have been completely renovated to be conducive to the learning of the pupils.

“As part of the efforts to combat head on the growing menace of Out-of -School children in the state, UBEC in conjunction with Ondo SUBEB under the Better Education Service Delivery For All training project organised weeks-long training for stakeholders in the sector on the Basic Attendance Management Information System.

“The training was very successful as over 900 schools were provided with digital devices for attendance management of pupils in classrooms.

“This is to be done side by side with the traditional means of attendance marking through the use of daily registers.

“To ensure seamless operations of devices and effectiveness of the project education secretaries, Zonal and Area Education Officers and Education Management Information System officers also undergone training,” he stated.

In addition, the ODSUBEB boss stated that the board had renovated schools and provide educational materials for the pupils from the UBEC fund after the state had paid its counterpart fund of N3.9 billion.

“When this government came on stream on February 24, 2017, the state of infrastructures and quality of curriculum in most of our schools were nothing to write home about.

“Most of the structures in our primary schools were in a state of despair, becoming a haven for dangerous reptiles and men of the underworld and miscreants who have taken over schools as their homes thereby endangering the lives of the pupils and the teachers alike.

“This was the situation the present government inherited and the government latched onto the opportunity by paying the matching grants put at over N3.9 billion with an additional same amount from UBEC.

“The government was able to turn around the narrative for the better.

“With the fund, the board has been able to construct, reconstruct and rehabilitate over 900 classrooms, fences, bore–holes, toilets, provided learners chairs and desks, tables for teachers, ECCD equipment, sporting equipment as well as instructional materials for pupils and their teachers value at over N2.2 billion to make our schools more attractive for both teaching and learning,” Olabimtan said.

He noted that the effects of this investment of the state government had already been yielding positive results in the performance of teachers and pupils in the internal and external examinations.

“Last year, our students performed excellently at a National JET Competition in far away, Nasarawa State, where they came first and third in both primary and junior secondary school categories respectively,” Olabimtan stated.