Oyo government cautions teachers against collection of fees

,Plans 20-year development agenda

The Oyo State Government has charged all teachers to start academic work immediately as schools resume today and warned them against collection of any money from parents under any guise.In a statement at the weekend by the state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Kehinde Sangodoyin, the government said teachers, supporting members of staff and students should be in schools before eight o’clock for academic work to commence immediately.

Sangodoyin, who warned teachers to desist from collecting any money from any parent or student in the guise of collection of levies, stated further that quality education that would yield best academic performance was the target of the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration, urging teachers to work hard by preparing the students for excellent performance.

Meanwhile, Makinde has said that his government is planning a 20-year development agenda to save the state from underwhelming performance.The governor, who stated this at the weekend during his closing remarks at the end of a two-day executive retreat for his executive council members and senior aides at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, said the administration was setting a high bar for its development objectives.“We have been under-achieving for many years. Administrations have come and gone. Yes, they did their best, but we have to set a high bar for ourselves.”

“Within the shortest possible time, we have to put in place a strategic development plan for Oyo State. Administrations have come and gone but operated on ad-hoc basis. We will put in place a 15 to 20-year development plan for Oyo State. We will be bullish about our development plans,” he said.

The commissioner said: “We are using this medium to congratulate our students in public and private schools for their resumption on Monday, September 16, 2019 and call on the teachers to engage the students in academic exercises immediately.“The current administration is doing all possible best to change the tide for better in achieving the best for the state in the area of students’ academic performance and improvement in national rating of the state in external examinations.

“To this end, facilities and teachers’ remunerations would be at the forefront of government reckoning to achieve the lofty goal while teachers are expected to do their bit to justify government’s strict adherence to providing the best enabling environment for their performance.”Shangodoyin, who appealed to parents to be alive to their responsibilities to make the children become valuable assets to both the parents and society in future, reiterated that the present administration was working assiduously to bring back the glory of education in the state.He, therefore, urged schools’ alumni and corporate bodies to support the current trend in the state to make education accessible to all.