Oyo State: Razed School Structures Must Be Rebuilt By Parents

The Governor of Oyo State has stated that all schools' structures razed by student during the violent agitation for automatic promotion of students in the state must be rebuilt by the parents of children involved in the act. He made the statement during a programme in which the new education policy of the state was disclosed.

Ajimobi made known to the public that schools in the state will now be run by a Governing Board which implies that the communities and other stakeholders will be involved  in monitoring for efficiency and maintenance of high standards in schools. Th Governor posits that the era of automatic promotion is over and that 80% classroom attendance is now a pre-requisite for promotion. He said the move becomes necessary owing to the poor performance of students in public examinations since the year 1999. Ajimobi vowed that government would not order the re-opening of the razed schools unless rebuilt by the parents of the vandal students. 

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While reiterating the abolition of automatic promotion of students in schools, Ajimobi added that 80 per cent attendance to classes had also become a pre-requisite for promotion.
“The statistics of our performance in public examinations since 1999 has been discouraging. It was therefore imperative that we arrest this situation and change our way of running schools, hence the need for new education policy.
“We therefore insisted on not promoting any student who failed to meet the pass criteria, yet you have some students who decided to raze their schools in protest to the no automatic policy.
“That is untoward and we won’t accept such act. The parents of those children who razed the schools will be responsible for the re-building of those schools. If they fail to rebuild those structures, we will not order the reopening of those schools that we shut. We won’t tolerate thuggery in our schools.
“In fact, 80 per cent attendance to classes by students is also a pre-requisite for promotion. Government alone cannot be responsible for the running of schools, so there must be participation of others in the management of schools. The school governing board means the community other stakeholders will be involved in monitoring for efficiency and maintenance of high standards in schools.
“The government will continue to employ teachers and our teachers must be re-trained to be more effective. However, the School Governing Board will monitor those teachers,” he said.
The event was attended by government officials, members of the state executive council, traditional rulers, Nigeria Union of Teachers, old boys’ associations, All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), students’ associations among others.