By Saheed Ibrahim
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Primary and secondary schools in Ondo State resume today for the 2023-2024 academic session.
The schools went on summer holiday to mark the end of the 2022-2023 academic session on July 28, 2023.
Observations across schools in the state revealed that preparation for resumption began last week across many schools.
Schools’ authorities have embarked on grass-cutting and clearing of the environment.
Pupils seeking admission into Junior Secondary School were seen with their parents checking their names and buying collectibles for admission.
The Ondo Ministry of Education, in a September 11, 2023 memo, warned school heads and administrators to refrain from demanding more than required from the students and on no account must any school sell books and uniforms to students.
“On no account should any school charge any extra levy or demand for any supporting materials to complement the ones Indicated in this circular and proper record of receipts for collectibles must be kept for on-the-spot auditing by Monitoring officers,” the memo signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Folasade Adegoke reads: “As a tradition, officials of the Ministry will visit schools across the 18 local government areas of the state to ensure they resume.
Also, the Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, has rolled out plans to firm up performances in primary schools in the state.
In a statement signed by the Director of Press of the Board, Bolu Ajijo, SUBEB will “engender better performance from teachers and pupils through watertight monitoring and quality assurance activities of all the schools in the state.
“The Director of Quality Assurance of the Board, Mr A.B Okedusi, who disclosed this while addressing newsmen on the plans put in place, said the Board had conducted in-house training for all the personnel that will be involved in the Quality Assurance exercise in the new session to refresh and equip them for better performance.
According to him, Evaluating schools by UBEC, SUBEB and Quality Assurance officers commences from the first day of the new academic session by conducting resumption monitoring to ascertain the level of preparedness of teachers and learners towards the new academic session. This will last for a week.
“The Continuous Quality Assurance evaluation will cover not less than 72 schools that would be randomly picked across the State and to ensure the effectiveness of the exercise, the 30 personnel to be involved were divided into six teams of five staff each.”
Meanwhile, some parents who spoke with The Hope lamented the high cost of books and school materials as many private schools have also increased tuition fees as some of the ripple effects of fuel subsidy removal in the country.
