How we changed the face of education in Ekiti – Fayemi
Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has given the account of how his administration changed the fortune of educational sector in the state.
Speaking in Ado Ekiti during the celebration of World Teachers’ Day at the state Pavilion, Fayemi recounted how his government paid over N8billion counterpart fund to Universal Basic Education Commission that enabled the state access funds to upgrade primary and junior secondary schools in the state.
The governor reeled out his achievements and scored himself high on the welfare of teachers through provision of conducive teaching environment, training and other special benefits.
Fayemi also used the opportunity of the celebration to appeal to teachers in the state to extend the same cooperation to his successor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji who will take over the leadership of the state later in the month.
“Our teachers have been at the heart of our education recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was my pleasure to celebrate their contributions and values on the occasion of the World Teachers’ Day.
“We are very proud of your outstanding performance that earned us the National Best Teacher of the year in 2020 and the 1st Runner-Up in 2021. We also had national awards for the best public primary school and the best approved private secondary school in 2021. Ekiti was one of the award-winning states in the 2021/2022 national Mathematics Day and SDG for Girls Child.
“As a result of the quality of your teaching and the friendly learning environment provided in our schools, enrolment increased from 191,117 in 2018 to 261,292 in 2022. This increase in enrolment automatically resulted in the need to establish additional ten secondary schools in 2021. The number of public primary and secondary schools in Ekiti increased from 901 to 906 and 196 to 203 respectively between 2018 and 2022.
“At the inception of our second tenure in 2018, the free and compulsory education programme was re-established. Levies on primary school pupils and secondary school students were abolished. This was done to ensure that no child drops out of school.
“As a government, we observed that many school buildings were dilapidated. That was what informed our decision to pay about #8 billion counterpart fund to match UBEC’s contribution that enabled us to execute 886 projects which were for 2016 to 2020.
“The projects included the construction of new blocks of classrooms, perimeter fencing, modern toilets, other WASH facilities, renovation of old blocks of classrooms, and provision of school furniture. As I speak now, under two World Bank-assisted programmes, AGILE and IDEAS, renovation of structures/provision of furniture and equipment in 202 schools and upgrading of facilities in three technical colleges, are ongoing.
“Moreover, 1,558 teachers were employed by SUBEB, TESCOM, and BTVE within the past four years. The Provision of free, compulsory, and qualitative education to Ekiti pupils and students has been at a great cost to us as a Government. So far, we have disbursed N655m as running grants to public schools in Ekiti State.
“I am glad that all the efforts are yielding the desired results. Ekiti is one of the two states with the lowest out-of-school children in the whole of Nigeria (MICS 2021) and an 80.4% early childhood development index which is above the Nigerian average of 47.7% (MICS 2021).
“I assure you all that as a lover of education and a teacher-friendly government, our Governor-elect will accord your welfare, entitlements, and promotion the deserved priority. I enjoin you all to give him much more support than you have given me,” Fayemi said.
