In this exclusive interview with The Hope, the Ondo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun shares his vision, challenges, and ongoing efforts to reposition the state’s education sector for greater efficiency and excellence.
Having served as Rector of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, and Vice-Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, and now as Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ajibefun brings a wealth of experience and passion for educational development. He speaks candidly about the Aiyedatiwa-led administration’s determination to revamp the sector, improve standards, restore discipline, and ensure that both public and private schools deliver quality education.
Excerpts:
As a former rector of the State Polytechnic, Vice-Chancellor of the State University and now Commissioner for Education, how do you feel sir?
Thank you very much, I feel happy that this opportunity has come up to once again serve Ondo State in this capacity. It is an opportunity to put in my best for the benefit of the people and of the society. Thank you.
What should the people of Ondo State be expecting from you sir?
Our amiable Governor, Dr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, has made it clear that he wants to revamp education. As Commissioner for Education, my core responsibility is to ensure that the education sector of Ondo State is revamped. That is the summary of my work. Revamping education requires improving the standards, bringing in discipline and ensuring that things are done properly. The students should get the best from the system, while the parents should also be happy with the kind of education their children receive.
Our private schools are very, very important. They are very, very critical. They are more than the public schools. So that means they are involved in training critical minds of Ondo State children. So this aspect of the education sector is very, very, very important. What they do there, we have to really monitor it to ensure that the right standard is done, the right thing is done, and the children there are getting the best from the private school also, as well as public schools.
We have gone through your programmes and policies on education, very fantastic, but why is it that when the government has a good policy like that, it’s sometimes difficult to implement ?
Yes, it depends on the environment. Our environment in Nigeria is a challenging one. When you want to make changes, there will always be resistance. Even when you are helping some people, they will refuse such assistance, thinking that their present condition is better than where you want to take them to. So that kind of resistance is the main challenge in our environment. People will not think of the benefit that will come from the change. Because of that resistance, at times, people who are in charge of implementation of policies and programmes get fed up and they just abandon it. But in our own case, once we want to implement a policy or programme, we will ensure that it is implemented to the letter.
So all the issues we have mentioned, all the plans and policies we have put in place, we are going to see them to the implementation level, we will implement them.
UNICEF recently estimated that Nigeria has about 18.3 million out-of-school children, comprising 10.2 million primary-age and 8.1 million junior secondary-age children. This alarming figure is largely driven by insecurity and poverty. How does this affect us in Ondo State?
Generally, in the developing countries, there is a large number of out-of-school children. That of Nigeria is a large number. Ondo State is not out of this problem, but the present government is making serious efforts to ensure that the number of out-of-school children is drastically reduced. For example, the issue of free shuttle buses is to help parents that cannot afford transportation of their children from home to the schools. So when buses are provided, free of charge, to take the children to their school and bring them back, including free boat transportation in the riverine areas, all over the places. This free shuttle transportation system is available. So it is to reduce the number of out-of-school children in our society. And the government is really trying that aspect. And also, the free tuition programme or policy in our public schools is to reduce the economic burden on the parents, so that no financial problem will stop the parents from sending their children to school.
Apart from these free shuttle transportation, what about the dilapidated structures and overcrowded classrooms in our public schools?
You know, Ondo State is an old State in Nigeria. So most of our schools are very old schools that were built several years ago. For example, the school I attended many years ago is still in the system. So most of these schools have structures that are very old. But currently, the government is making intervention in renovating these schools. And even in constructing new schools, new classrooms and laboratories, in all parts of the state.
New construction is coming up and the renovation of the old structures is happening in most of these schools. If this effort is constant, if there is consistent effort in this direction, I’m sure in the next few years, most of our schools will have a new look.
As someone who passed through public schools, even as an educator, are you not worried that now we have more private schools than public schools? For instance, in Oba-Ile, we only have one public Secondary school, as large as Oba-Ile is, with many private schools.
Yes. Government cannot provide education alone. Not only in Ondo State, there was a workshop I attended in Lagos State, I think about three weeks ago, organized by UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Education. Private schools in Lagos also outnumber the public schools. It’s everywhere. Government cannot provide education alone. Private sectors will have to really take part in it. That is why you have them everywhere. It is a good thing. This is what we call PPP, public-private partnership. We have to work together to do most things. So it is a good development. The only thing is that we have to ensure there is a right standard.
The quality is good enough in both our private schools and public schools.
Would it not be better for the government to have more presence in area like Oba-Ile?
There is a public school there, is that not so? I think that is good. If we have enough private schools to take care of the children, that is good enough. If there is agitation from the communities to the government, the government will also look into that direction. But I am sure there hasn’t been any agitation from that community. It means they are okay with the arrangement.
What are the findings of the government on the issue of fake teacher recruitment saga? How many officials were found culpable? What steps have been taken to discipline the culprits?
I think the investigation is still ongoing. The report has not come out on that. The government is already looking into it. Once the report is ready, everybody will know.
But we have the issue of overcrowded schools at the centre, (in the cities), while other areas like the villages have less population of students. Why is that?
The reason is simple. Cities are overpopulated. You have more population in cities. In every city, you will always have overcrowded schools. Not only schools. If there is any event, the crowd there will be far, far more than the one in rural areas. The population in rural areas is far less than the one in the cities.
How is the ministry addressing that? What are the incentives put in place to encourage people to stay and have education in rural areas? Not only for the students, including the teachers.
Yes, in rural areas, most of the facilities that are in towns and cities are not present in rural areas. That’s why most youths don’t stay there. Most people don’t stay there. To encourage people to stay in rural areas, I think there has to be improvement in the infrastructural facilities. But as the Ministry of Education, we try to give our teachers encouragement to remain in rural areas, to continue to train the students. Once a teacher is recruited, wherever they are posted to, including rural areas, they are mandated to remain there for some years before they will be transferred out of that place. We are also looking at some other incentives at the Ministry of Education level that we can give to teachers in rural areas.
The state government recently gave directives on illegal collection of fees and sale of textbooks by public schools in the State. How well has the schools complies with that directive?
From the reports received so far, it has been very effective because two principals have been caught in the act. They have been queried and the investigation is going on. We have summomed them and they owned up to it. We are working out some things concerning that. Others are aware of this. I think everybody is very, very cautious now about the money they charge their students, because the parents will call us, they will report whatever that happens concerning the collection of fees. So it is very, very effective already. The teachers and the heads of those schools know that we are serious about the statements we made concerning illegal fees.
What about the private schools?
Yes, for private schools, we haven’t said anything about money collection or fees collection because we have to be gradual in whatever we are doing. There are so many things to address. So we will be meeting with the private school owners from time to time. We have scheduled some meetings for next week. We are going to have discussions with owners of private schools and their association. But definitely we are going to look at whatever that goes on there. Whatever that is not good enough, we are going to correct such things.
The Federal Government recently reintroduced History as a compulsory subject at basic education level. What is the level of preparedness of Ondo State to key into that?
Thank you very much. We implement Federal Government policies in the education sector. Yes, the new curriculum has been sent to us and we are going to implement it. We are preparing for it. We are working on the details. The content of the curriculum, the details, we are trying to retrieve it so that once our schools get the details, they will start to implement it.
History, I’m not sure it is a big challenge to reintroduce. It is a good thing. When we were in primary school, secondary school, we learned history. It is important to do history in school. Most of the challenges we are facing today is because some of these subjects have been removed from the curriculum. It is important for the children to know what happened several years ago, hundreds of years ago. Where are we coming from? Where are we and where are we going? The subject is very, very important and reintroducing it is a good thing, as well as other subjects, technical skills and technology and AI, all those things, AI-driven subjects. They are very, very important. We definitely need to work to implement the curriculum.
The state government recently recruited over 2,000 teachers in public schools across the state. What difference has that made in the delivery of education in Ondo State?
You know, there is a wide gap between what we have currently in our school as teachers and what is needed. There is a wide gap. So starting with 2,200 in a year, it is a good step. If that act is consistent, I think in the next few years, we will bridge the gap. Not only the recruitment, the infrastructure development in our schools, both in urban and rural areas, it will also help to attract very good teachers as well as retain them, especially in the rural areas where there are no facilities. So the development of the infrastructural facilities in this school, as well as development of the entire community by this present government will help in retaining our very good teachers in those areas.
Over a month ago, you received officials of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) in your office. Can you please shed more light on your engagement with the NCC?
Yes, the officials of the NCC paid us a courtesy visit. They were here and they also narrated their challenges about fake books that are everywhere, where the right owners will not make as much money as the pirates. So we promised to work in collaboration with them and it is truly not a good thing for people to steal the knowledge of others to sell. It is not a good thing and we have promised that as Ministry of Education, we collaborate and partner with them to ensure that fake books will not be used in our schools.
Agriculture is always known to be the mainstay of the economy in the past, but the reverse is the case now. What effort is the ministry making to ensure that agriculture is taken seriously in our schools?
The issue of agriculture is very, very important. It is one of the vocational subjects that every student must participate in. As you have said, agriculture is the mainstay of our economy. Our economy is rural-based, it’s agricultural-based and agriculture has to be taken seriously at all levels, particularly in our schools, so that these children know that agriculture is important. They will start to learn the practices and also have it in their mindset that agriculture is important to them as individuals and to our country. You know, when we were in primary school and secondary school, we used to sing a weekly song that education without vocational skills is incomplete.
For instance, in my backyard, I continue to farm there. Little, little things I do, I continue to do that because I know it is very, very important. I get fresh vegetables, I get, in fact, most of the things we require in the house, I get them from my backyard because I know that it is from this agriculture that we can do it.
So, if we put it in the mindset of these children, right from this youthful age, it will remain there and whatever little effort they make towards agricultural practices or development will go a long way.
In the year 2023, the state government introduced Educational Endowment/Trust Levy whereby all taxable adult in the state pay N1000 annually. This was to generate about N1.5bn to revamp education in the State. How far has the state gone with this?
The programme is being implemented and it is working but I don’t know how many taxable adults have been contributing towards this, but I know some companies in Ondo State have been contributing towards that. The implementation at individual levels, I don’t know how effective that is happening, but I will find out if it is really being effected.
What should be the people’s expectations from your Ministry?
The education sector is very, very important in every nation, in every economy, because it touches every family, every household. What people should expect is simple. It’s a total revamping of the education sector. We know things have gone down. Today, most children, they don’t want to read. They prefer to stay with their phone, watching films, because the level of seriousness in school has gone down. There is no discipline in most of the schools. You see children roaming about when they’re supposed to be in the classroom. And in some cases, the teachers that are supposed to teach them, they are doing other businesses. We are going to reverse the trend. We are going to make the students, the children, to see that education is very, very important, that their future depends on education, on the level of seriousness they put into their studies. We want to put it in their mindset. We want to bring back discipline in the school, whereby the head of school will instill discipline from the teachers down to the students.
So, we want to do that, and we want our students in Ondo State to go into exams with full confidence, not that they will be expecting their teachers to dictate answers to them. So, we are going to really work on that so that the students, they can really do very well in their academic performance so that the parents will also have peace of mind. The parents will have peace of mind when a child is not doing well, the parents will have troubled mind. Once we correct the anomalies in the sector, everybody will be better for it, and that is what people should expect. And our tertiary institutions, they are doing well, and what we want to do is to ensure that there is a stable academic calendar, that schools, those institutions, are not closed down.
You know, we have some cases in some institutions in the past that schools may be closed down, particularly federal universities, for eight months, nine months. That is not good for any system. In Ondo State, we want our institutions to be very regular in terms of academic calendar so that the students will be in school when they ought to be there. They will have their normal holidays during the holidays. I know this holiday period for our tertiary institutions by October, they’re supposed to be going back. So, we want it to be regular so that they can graduate at the right time.