Academy of Letters commends Ondo over education policy

ONDO State government’s investment in the education sector in the past two years has received the commendation of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), which described it as “result-oriented and capable of improving the sector in the next few years”.

The Academy was particular about the establishment of mega-primary schools, which Governor Olusegun Mimiko said, were designed to take the primary school education system to the next level.

Designed to accommodate no fewer than 1,000 pupils and equipped with all the necessary facilities, including functional laboratories well-stocked libraries, sports facilities in a child-friendly environment, each of the schools will cost the government N350 million to construct.

Several existing schools with small pupil population particularly in the urban centres, are to be collapsed into these mega-schools that are already under construction in the three senatorial districts of the state.

The executive of NAL, a non-profit organisation set up to promote academic excellence in the country, led by its founding President, Prof. Ayo Bamgbose and the current President, Prof. Ben Olugbe, gave the endorsement in Akure, the state capital, at the weekend.

The NAL team, which also included Professors Ayo Banjo, Olatunji Oloruntimehin, Kunle Adeniran and Romanus Egudu, was in Ondo State for its yearly lecture slated to hold at the state-owned Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), the first state university to be selected for the event.

Professor Olugbe, who spoke during a courtesy visit to the Governor’s Office before leading the team on an inspection tour of the Akure mega-primary school site, said the efforts of the state government at educational development would enhance the standard of education while academic excellence would be achieved.

Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Aderotimi Adelola, who stood in for the governor, told the NAL team that the concept of the mega-primary school was not for the school to be elitist but to provide equal opportunity of qualitative education for all children irrespective of parental or socio-economic status.

He added that the idea was also mooted to have world-class primary schools with all educational and instructional facilities in place “to move the administration of primary schools from the concept of the 1950s to a new level”.

According to Adelola, who also stressed that the Mimiko administration was committed to delivering qualitative education to all and sundry, “the huge investment in education in this state in the past two years is not misplaced because our target is to reposition the sector into enviable heights that our state was known for”.