Members of the Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Science and Technology have charged the State Ministry of Education to redouble their effort at ensuring effective assessment/ supervision of public schools by the Zonal Education Officers across the State.
The members led by the Chairman, Hon. Ademuyiwa Adeyemi threw the challenge during the ongoing second quarter budget performance assessment of Ministries, Departments and Agencies at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
The lawmakers explained that it had become necessary for the Zonal Officers, especially those at the rural areas, to always provide accurate and up-to-date information about all schools under their jurisdiction to the supervising Ministry for the formulation of appropriate plans towards addressing the needs of the various schools.
Responding, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Abayomi Arigbabu, intimated the lawmakers that the ministry had just launched the State Education Revitalization Agenda (OGSERA)- an online real-time database platform that provides details of all pupils in both government primary and secondary schools including electronic dossier and online attendance for efficiency and transparency.
Arigbabu added that the launch of the online platform which gave a distinct identification number to all pupils/students, earned the State accolades in the comity of States and there were plans by some States to understudy the scheme.
Speaking on the peculiarities of the scheme, the Commissioner said new entrants and students seeking transfer into government owned primary/secondary schools would be issued new identification number, which would equally checkmate illegal registration of students for terminal classes and it would also be used to qualify them for examinations including WAEC.
In another development, the lawmakers challenged the management team of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to always ensure strict adherence to accounting procedures, thereby achieving proper classification of revenue and expenditures of its budget report.
The lawmakers also appraised the budget performance report of Ministry of Justice, State High Court, High Court of Justice, Judicial Service Commission, Customary Court of Appeal, Teaching Service Commission.
Others are Gateway Industrial and Petro-Gas Institute, Oni, Gateway Polytechnic, Saapade, Sikiru Kayode Adetona College of Education, Science and Technology, Omu, Ijebu and the State College of Health Technology, Ilese, Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Ijebu-Igbo, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic among others.
