Oyo govt distributes 96 laptops to education officers across state 

JOSEPH OKWUOFU, Ibadan

In its bid to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state, the Oyo state government, through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, has distributed 96 laptops to the Education Management Information System (EMIS) Offices across the 33 local government areas of the state.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Salihu Adelabu, while presenting the laptops to the beneficiaries at the Ministry’s Conference room, Secretariat, Ibadan, said that the state is working assiduously to reduce the percentage of out-of-school children in the state.

He explained that in Oyo state during the Omituntun 1.0, 15 per cent of the out-of-school children were brought back to the classroom, adding that in the roadmap for sustainable development, the state government is planning to move at least 5% back to the school.

He explained that the 96 laptops were procured and given to the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA AF-TESS) state project offices to elicit data and information across the state to make concerned officers perform optimally.

He stressed further that the ongoing Better Education Service Delivery for All additional financing project is a form of Educational Grant from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in collaboration with the World Bank involving three States in the Country (Oyo, Adamawa and Kastina).

He hinted that the state governor, Seyi Makinde, is committed to providing quality education to its citizens as a means of raising quality and enduring human capital resources.

He encouraged all the beneficiaries’ MDAs to ensure that the laptops were strictly used for the purposes for which they were given.

He said: Today’s programme was centred on how we will bring the out-of-school Children back to school.

The World Bank is interested in it and there is a programme tagged Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), those in charge of this programme are working assiduously on how to reduce the percentage of out-of-school Children.

In Oyo state,  during the Omituntun 1.0, 15 per cent of the out-of-school Children were brought back to the classrooms.

In the roadmap for sustainable development, the Oyo state government is planning to move at least five per cent back to the school, that is the minimum benchmark.

In the Ministry of Education, we have taken it upon ourselves to work on ten per cent of out-of-school children.

This BESDA AF-TESS is in Oyo, Adamawa and Kastina states.

He said, “Today, many laptops were given to elicit data and information across the Oyo state. As a ministry, we invited all the stakeholders, such as SUBEB to work on Basic Education, TESCOM to work on Secondary Education and Local Inspection Education Officers (LIEs) who are field managers that are to draw an education map and probably categorize them into red zone and green zone based on the socio-economic background of our people in the state. 

“This will make us know our targets in the state and to know the challenges that make them not to be in the schools.

“The state government is willing to provide all the necessary support that will make them go back to the school.”

Earlier in his remarks, the State Project Coordinator, Dr Bamidele Odekunle, said that the BESDA AF-TESS programme is meant to reduce maximally the out-of-school children.

He stated further that the Oyo state, being a beneficiary state, needs to get data to know the number of students who are out of school in the state.

He also said that the laptops donated to Stakeholders will help them work effectively.

According to him, We have only three States benefitting from this Programme and this Programme is meant to reduce maximally the out-of-school Children back to the schools.

“We also need to equip the teachers that will handle the children when they get back to the school. So these are expected deliverables of BESDA AF-TESS projects.

“Oyo state being a beneficiary, needs data gathering to know the number of students who are out of school, in view of this, there is a need for Instrument such as laptops that will help them to work effectively.”