Oyo govt laments poor WASSCE results

Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Solomon Olaniyonu, has said the state government was shocked at the poor performance of its pupils in the last West Africa School Certificate Examination. The result, which was released recently, ranked Oyo State in the 24th position, behind all the states in the South-West.

He spoke at an event where two blocks of 10 classrooms renovated by Chevron Employee Volunteers at Community High School Alegongo were formally handed over to the state in Ibadan.

Olaniyonu said despite the state paying N.5bn for pupils’ examination and other expenses, the result was not encouraging.

The commissioner said the pupils’ attitude to education could be the reason for the poor results.

Olaniyonu said, “The state government shouldered the financial obligations of the pupils for the examination but the feedback is not encouraging. The result we got placed the state in poor position and I think it will be wrong to blame the government for this. We are not happy at all and we are disturbed. To get a good result, government effort must be complemented with that of the teachers, parents and the pupils. The parents need to do more and the pupils must work harder. We are still looking into what could have caused this.

“This government will not relent in doing its own work. We will continue to support education by providing the necessary facilities needed for learning. Despite the financial challenges we have, the state government has been able to renovate many school buildings, pay WAEC fees and do other things.

Each month, the state generates N1.5bn as Internally Generated Revenue while the Federal Government gives N4.5bn as allocation. That amount has gone down to N3.6bn and yet, salaries, including that of teachers gulp N4.6bn monthly. We must praise Governor Abiola Ajimobi for what he is doing despite this challenge.”

The commissioner however thanked the management of Chevron for the gesture, urging the school management to make good use of the furniture and the renovated structures.

General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs of Chevron, Deji Haastrup, represented by the company’s Senior Social Performance, Eribo Tuoyo, said the company provided the fund for the project under its Employees Voluntary Programme.

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