A committee of academics and seasoned administrators assembled by the Oyo State has blamed nonchalant attitude of students and lack of commitment by parents for dismal education standards.
The 31-member committee on participatory management of public schools said this in its report presented to Governor Senator Abiola Ajimobi in Ibadan on Wednesday.
To alter the status quo, it recommended the adoption of school-based management system that would vest authority and responsibility of school administration in a board in place of the state authorities.
The committee, which was headed by the Vice Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Prof. Adeniyi Gbadegesin, was inaugurated on July 12.
The chairman said the seven-week exercise took the team to 29 secondary schools across urban, semi-urban and rural communities in the eight education zones to gather firsthand data.
In recommending the model, Gbadegesin said the committee took cognisance of the willingness of majority of stakeholders to partner the government in the running of the schools.
He said: “The recommended model does not preclude the openness of government to philanthropic gestures, partial or total adoption of schools by individuals, organisations or local and international groups.
“However, this should be carried out within the general objectives, policy and stringent guidelines (of the state government) for the delivery of education to the people of Oyo State.
“The outcome of our study clearly reveals that government alone can no longer bear the responsibility of providing the fiscal, material and human resources needed for the management of schools.”
The governor thanked members of the committee for their painstaking efforts and robust input to the proposed participatory management of public schools.
Ajimobi maintained that the administration would not allow further decadence in the education sector, urging stakeholders to join hands with the government in the task ahead.
Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Joseph Adeniyi Olowofela, in a chat with The Nation in Ibadan, said the government’s position on restructuring and repositioning of its primary and secondary schools to achieve quality delivery in the education sector has not changed.
The initial move by government to introduce Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the running of public schools did not augur well with members of the organised labour, especially the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who embarked on violent protest followed by prolonged industrial strike that paralysed the education sector.