Ogun To Prune Down Tertiary Institutions

Ogun state government may soon prune down the number of the tertiary institutions in the state,except the newly inaugurated Visitation and Fact Finding panel recommends otherwise.

Giving this hint was the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Barr. John Olusegun Odubela while addressing newsmen in his office this morning.

He stated that the government is worried about the proliferation of state owned tertiary institutions, describing the number as huge.

The immediate past administration led by Otunba Gbenga Daniel had established six new tertiary institutions, adding to the four already in existence in the state.

The six established by the Daniel administration are: Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijagun; Institute of Petrochemical Studies, Oni, Waterside and four polytechnics namely, Abraham Adesanya in Ijebu-Igbo, D.S.Adegbenro, Itori, Saapade and Igbesa.

According to the commissioner, “as a state, we believe that this number is huge, but we don’t want a situation where we will take a decision without bringing in experts who will look at it and then recommend what is to be done. And that is one of the reasons why the panel is being set up.

“They will look at it, look at the reasons why those schools were set up, are they actually meeting those needs, do we have good schools? We don’t want to sit as a government and take a decision without bringing in proper professionals who will look into it and then recommend to us and that is what we have done and I am sure in a short time, they will give us their findings.”

Speaking on the crisis emanating from the controversial return of schools to the missionaries, Odubela condemned the action of the past administration, which according to him, “did not follow due process.”

He said, “at the time the past administration got that MoU where they agreed to hand over those schools, they were not considering the law which is still in existence.That law has not been amended, it has not been repealed and its general application to settled principle law that an MoU cannot supercede a law.

“It was not properly done and that MoU to me cannot withstand the position of the law.Secondly, I want to believe that the past administration did not actually take a lot of things into consideration.

“If you just agree with the way they have done, almost about 30,000 of our students will be roaming the streets because they will not be able to pay those fees that will be charged by those missionary schools.”

Commenting on the plan to begin free education as announced by the governor during his inauguration, the Commissioner confessed that “I know that free education would gulp a lot of money but the government is determined.

“Our Excellency is determined and very passionate about education. Once that name education is mentioned to him, he is very keen and he is prepared to do anything that will make education affordable and qualitative.

“What we are going to do is to look at those things that are in line with education. Very soon the policies and the guidelines will be released.”

Speaking on how much the government has expended on education within its first 100 days, Odubela said: “Within the last 100 days, we have spent over N300 million to pay the outstanding debt of 2010 and 2011 West African Examination Council (WAEC).

“We have paid the N10 million state counterpart fund for the development of the education Sector Strategic Plan, paid over N17 million to all public secondary schools in the state as their running cost, renovated 100 public schools and a lot more. In all, the state would have spent over N1 billion on the educational sector in the state.”

By Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta