Governor Makinde plans to replicate construction of Federal Government's SMART School initiative

In a visit by delegation of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Governor Seyi Makinde has stated that his administration is planning to replicate the construction of the Federal Government's SMART School Initiative in each of the three senatorial districts of the state.

The team of UBEC was led to the Governor's Office by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Arch. Sonny Echono.

The was disclosed by Taiwo Adisa, chief press secretary to the governor, revealing that the governor was set to enhance the quality of teaching, learning and the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT).

I want to welcome this delegation to Oyo State and will like to thank you for your support to our state at the basic education level and even at the BESDA level.

Ibadan, actually, used to be ahead of the education capital of not just Nigeria but the whole continent; but we lost all of that along the line. "Suddenly, we had the most out-of-school children in the entire South West and that was the situation we were in when we came in.

When we came in, I met Dr. Bobboyi in Abuja and when I saw the design of those smart schools, I assured that we are going to replicate it in Oyo State and said we will have, in each of our Senatorial District, such school for our gifted and talented children. It is a work in progress and we will get there.

When I was going round during the electioneering, the people told me not to tell them about what the previous administration did not do but what exactly I wanted to do for them. So, we developed the Roadmap for Accelerated Development of Oyo State and we put it on four major pillars and Education is one of them, he said.

While recalling his administration achievement on surpassing the UNESCO recommendation on the percentage of the state budget to education, Governor Makinde commended the Oyo UBEC coordinator for her efforts.

Also, He assured that his administration will align with UBEC on BESDA funds, saying,

Finally, this is for us an example of how the state, the sub-national government can collaborate with the FG to ensure the programmes and policies actually get the desired results at the local level. We will ensure that we do that effectively and this is an opportunity to demonstrate that.