Oyo State Govt Approves N5.7bn Contract To Renovate Schools

The Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Adeniyi Olowofela, has said that ahead of pupils’ resumption in the state on April 30, 2018, the state government awarded contracts worth N5.7bn to construct new structures and renovate the existing ones.

The commissioner, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, said the effort was initiated in order to improve on the teaching environment in the schools. He added that the state government had also introduced what he described as cluster training to boost teachers’ capacity for the benefit of the pupils.

“Primary and secondary schools will resume on April 30, 2018 and the state government, as part of its effort to improve on education standard in the state, has approved contracts worth N2bn to renovate and construct new structures in 100 secondary schools in the state.

“The government has also approved contracts worth N3.7bn to do the same in more than 300 primary schools. Some of the projects will be completed before the pupils return to the schools while others will be completed later.

“We are also improving the capacity of the teachers through cluster training. We do this by bringing teachers who teach a particular subject together and train them on how to improve on their teaching technique. This will have a short and long term effect on the pupils who will directly benefit from this effort.”

Olowofela enjoined parents to play their roles in the training of their children because, according to him, government should not be left to do everything.

“We organise coaching camp for pupils who are preparing for their final examinations in secondary schools. While this is aimed at helping them to do well in the examination, we are also calling on parents to do their parts in the training of these children because government cannot do it alone,” said the commissioner.