Why Oyo State is privatising schools, by commissioner

Oyo State government has again highlighted reasons why it is privatizing schools.

The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Seun Abimbola, yesterday lamented that most of the schools have lost their past glory of being fountains of knowledge.

Abimbola who was the guest speaker at the distinguished personality lecture of the Law Students Society of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan in honour of the state Chief Judge, Justice Mukhtar Abimbola, said the schools no longer provide the needed enabling neither environment nor the required knowledge to students.

In his lecture titled: “ Learning, the learned and what is learnt,” the Attorney General said, “regrettably, whereas many still seek education from our primary schools to tertiary institutions, not all are learning in the process. Claiming to hold a degree without having the innate acquired knowledge reflected in us is tantamount to education without learning. It was disheartening for me to watch a video that has gone viral showing a school teacher in Edo State being schooled by Governor Adams Oshiomhole in the kindergarten class to read the words in an affidavit. Yet the said teacher claimed to have a degree in education from a tertiary institution of learning.

“The position is not remarkably different here in Oyo State in some of our public primary and secondary schools. Having an educational institution without the benefit of the full complement of trained, committed and qualified teachers, suitable infrastructure, and self-motivated students eager to chart a course in life towards success is merely chasing education without learning. This is why we all must support the initiative of the Government of Oyo state in inviting private participation in the management and operations of some of our secondary schools in a bid to return the schools to their historical glory.”

He said that Oyo state still attracts a significant number of children across the world coming to school in this university and in private secondary schools. This fact alone shows that the standard of regulation set by the state for public and private secondary schools ranks high, but whereas the private schools meticulously try to sustain that standard, same level of diligence cannot be said of the managers of our public secondary schools.

What is the use of attending a school without getting educated, or getting educated without learning much, or seeking to even learn, but unable to because of the structural challenges created by inadequate resources and other management issues over public schools. As much as we desire education in Oyo State, we cannot remain ignorant.