By Saheed Ibrahim

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Ondo State Government has frowned at the rate of encroachment into schools’ lands across the state.

While speaking with The Hope, the State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Olufemi Agagu described the situation as alarming. 

He expressed worry that members of the communities that provided the land for government to build schools were the ones encroaching into the schools.

While saying the encroachment would prevent the expansion of the schools in the future, added that the government had issued a white paper that was being implemented and the government would do the needful to curtail the ugly development

“We are liaising with the Ministry of Lands to retrieve documents and we are also working with the Ministry of Urban Development and also the Ministry of Justice. We are working to minimize it if we can’t stamp it out completely.”

He also stressed that the communities in which the schools are domiciled should rather protect the lands than usurp them.

As regards the plan for the second term of the 2022-23 academic session, Agagu said the state was working on a well-planned academic calendar being followed and there will be a continuous routine inspection to monitor the activities of the schools in the state.

He added that there were reports sent from each of the zones in the state to keep abreast of the activities of schools in the areas.

To ensure the continuous performance of students and teachers, he said the performance of Ondo state has always been impressive in the country and efforts were being made to ensure the standard did not decline.

“In this era of technology, we have been doing our best with the resources we have to ensure that we keep pace with the level of technological development in education.

He added that the ministry would collaborate with several other government agencies and offices as well as private organisations to ensure further education development in the state.