OGUN DEVISES STRATEGIES TO CURB CULTISM, AS EDUCATION MINSTRY DEFENDS OVER N6BN BUDGET FOR 2022

 OGUN DEVISES STRATEGIES TO CURB CULTISM, AS EDUCATION MINSTRY DEFENDS OVER N6BN BUDGET FOR 2022

          The Ogun State Government has stepped up measures towards addressing social vices, including the rising spate of cultism and hooliganism in secondary schools, hence all parents will have to sign undertakings on behalf of their wards to be of good conduct within and outside the school environment.

         

The State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, disclosed this while fielding questions from OGIS correspondent when taking his turn to defend the Ministry's 2022 budget presentation before the members of the State House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation led by Hon, Olakunle Sobukanla at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

          Arigbabu stated that government had redoubled its efforts at ensuring that the menace was nipped in the bud, as stakeholders including parents, teachers and the security agents had come up with different approaches that would holistically address the emerging misconducts among students.

          He added that the School-Based Management Committee was being put in place to serve as interdisciplinary source, to track and report any act inimical to peace in school environment.

          The Commissioner posited that the Ministry was equally reviving sports, to further engage pupils in extra-curriculum activities, in addition to the resuscitation of moral teaching during morning devotion in line with COVID-19 protocols.  

          He stated that the Ministry would further empower secondary school principals and strengthen the School-Based Management Committee, towards profiling all pupils in the school to weed off the bad eggs among them.

          Defending the Ministry's proposal for next year, Arigbabu intimated the lawmakers that a total of N6.094bn was the total expenditure for 2022, which consisted of N3.129bn for capital expenditure and N2.96bn for recurrent expenditure, just as its revenue target was fixed at N2.28bn.

          He explained that N2.50bn was being earmarked for the construction of 60 units of a block of three classrooms, 49 units of a block of two classrooms, eight units of technical workshops/science laboratory and rehabilitation of public schools across the State.

 

Jamiu Lawal,

Head, Information Unit, OGHA.