Oyo to construct, renovate classrooms in 33 LGAs

The Executive Chairman of the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Nureni Adeniran, has disclosed that the board would soon embark on massive construction and renovation of classrooms across the 33 Local Government Areas of the state.

He stated this while featuring on the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing, held at the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, on Wednesday.

Adeniran, in a statement released by the Special Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on Media, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, in Ibadan, the state capital, on Thursday, said the board had got approval to execute projects in public basic schools across the state.

The chairman explained that the policies of Makinde-led administration in the basic education sector covering primary and junior secondary schools, have helped to greatly reduce infrastructure deficit and improved the quality of education in the state.

He maintained that the administration has been able to improve the quality of education through the massive training of teaching and non-teaching staff members, recruitment of thousands of teachers, construction/renovation of classrooms and procurement of school furniture, among others.

The SUBEB boss said, “The governor started the task of repositioning the basic education sector in the state in 2019. In his first four years of office, the government promptly paid UBEC counterpart funds for 2019, 2020 and 2021, which enabled SUBEB to embark on different physical and human development programmes, which uplifted the basic education sector in the state.

“The board conducted training programmes for 13,859 teaching and non-teaching staff members, constructed 289 blocks of classrooms, 60 model schools and renovated another 229 classrooms, while it also procured 22,962 desks and benches, 1,189 teachers’ furniture, sank 138 boreholes and also procured 33 motorcycles, 30 desktop computers and 33 digital tablets, among other efforts.

There is no gain-saying that the vision of the Makinde administration on the Basic Education sub-sector to have a very negligible number of out-of-school children in the state, is gaining momentum on a daily basis as over 60, 000 out-of-school children have returned to schools,” he said.

Speaking on how the government’s efforts have improved education during Omituntun 2.0, Adeniran said, “The government has also graciously paid the counterpart funds for 2022 and 2023 to complement the released matching grants from the Federal Government through UBEC for the two years, which amounted to over N2.6 billion.

“The board has got approval to execute projects in public basic schools across the 33 Local Government Areas of the state, including construction of 41 blocks of classrooms, seven perimeter fences, 30 boreholes, procurement of 5,828 pupils’ desks and benches, 473 teachers’ tables and chairs, 910 sports equipment as well as the renovation of 60 blocks of classrooms.

“Apart from the SUBEB interventions, the state would also embark on another massive construction and renovation of classrooms through a reward fund it got for its involvement in the Better Education Service Delivery for All programme, which sought to reduce out-of-school children.

“All the states that benefited in the BESDA programme were rewarded with funds and Governor Makinde decided and insisted that the reward should be utilised for the provision of infrastructure in public primary schools in the state.

“To this end, the board has rolled out infrastructural projects which will soon be executed in the public primary schools in all the 33 Local Government Areas of the state and this will go a long way to improve both infrastructure and academic activities of these benefiting schools.

“These projects will include the construction of 28 blocks of classrooms, renovation of 29 blocks of classrooms, construction of four compartment toilet with deep-well, sinking of 16 boreholes with tank and tank-stands and the procurement of 2,922 desks and benches and 182 teachers’ tables and chairs,” he explained.