The Oyo State Government on Monday reintroduced School Governing Boards as it inaugurated the boards for the 643 public secondary schools in the state.
The Secretary to the State Government, Olubamiwo Adeosun, inaugurated the boards on behalf of Governor Seyi Makinde.
The Boards were inaugurated at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
Adeosun said the state government embarked on the inauguration as a broad-based participatory management structure in the schools.
According to her, the SGB structure is a means of attracting alternative funding sources for education in the state and will help reinforce the present administration’s achievements in the education sector.
“It will also be a means of ensuring prudence and transparency in the utilisation of available resources for maximum impact,” she said
Adeosun said that all the policies introduced by the government in the education sector had been yielding positive results.
The SSG added: “The policies have brought about the qualitative and sound education system currently being witnessed in the state.
“Such policies have led to improved access to quality education as evident in the drastic reduction in the number of out of school children and enrolment explosion in public schools as well as improvement in learning outcomes, among others.
“SGB is another quest to further reinforce the achievements already recorded by thus administration in the education sector.”
Adeosun said admonished members of the boards to see their appointments as a call to service.
The SSG urged them to see the assignment as a way of giving back to the community that made them and an avenue to contribute their quota to the development of Oyo State.
Adeosun also admonished the chairmen and secretaries (School Principals) to work together in harmony and ensure that all actions taken by the various stakeholders serve a common goal for the good of the students and the system.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Education, Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, commended Makinde for giving approval to the re-introduction of the School Governing Boards.
Abdulraheem said the inauguration was to reinforce the benefits of government reform policies “to ensure that the management of our public schools is sufficiently conditioned to administer the delivery of even more accessible quality education for the development of the state”.
He charged the Board Chairmen and Secretaries to work together harmoniously and selflessly to achieve a total turnaround of the schools.
Highlight of the occasion was the symbolic presentation of appointment letters to members of the SGB from the three senatorial districts.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that late Governor Abiola Ajimobi introduced the school governing boards during his tenure, but Makinde cancelled the boards on assumption of duty.
It was alleged that the Ministry of Education discovered abnormalities in the system, necessitating the dissolution of the SGBs.