Osun Govt Introduces Pre-primary Education In Public Schools

By Jamiu Ganiyu, Osogbo

The Governor of the State of Osun, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola has approved the introduction of pre-primary education for elementary schools in the state which began with the new 2019/2020 academic session.

This was disclosed yesterday by the permanent secretary, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Fatai Kolawole in Osogbo, the state capital at the official commissioning and distribution of a fresh batch of modern teaching aids, instructional materials, and sporting facilities to government-owned elementary and middle schools in the state.

Speaking specifically on the new primary education, the Osun SUBEB PS described that level of education as the foundation upon which others learning acquisition is built.

He said about five years ago, the national education policy was changed from the original 6-3-3-4 to 1-6-3-34 which put the first one year for pre-primary education but for some reasons the government could not implement it then until now that the current administration gave approval for its commencement.

In his words, the top education echelon while speaking on basic education generally said, “when you talk about education, the earlier you start the better because it is at the very basis, the rudimentary part that you acquire the first education, it is a question of catching them young, if you want to have a stable nationhood, then one must ensure that citizens are educated and that is the reason we decided that will need to go out and drum it to the ears of everybody that they should bring out their children and wards to government schools to be properly educated, he concluded.

On the flag off and distribution exercise, the teaching and instructional materials contain different modern tools and items geared towards enhancing quality literacy and numeracy skills of pupils in both basic and elementary schools in the state while sporting facilities were also made available by the government to encourage pupils that are naturally talented to acquire and improve their life skills.

In addition, new sets of motorcycles were also distributed across all the local governments in the state to hasten proper monitoring of schools in remote parts of the state.

The SUBEB boss described the flag off of the new set of instructional materials and teaching aids as something the state government does periodically in order to ensure that instructional materials are readily available to facilitate the teaching and learning process in government schools.

He assured parents and guardians that public schools in the state have qualified teachers and that the administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola will continue to train and retrain the teachers to boost their productivity.

While speaking on behalf of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, the Head of Civil Service in the State, Dr. Oyebade Olowogboyega, commended the teachers in the state for the wonderful job they were doing and for promoting education in the state.

He assured the teachers that the administration of Governor Gboyegs Oyetola would do everything to promote them. He used the opportunity to inform the teachers in the state that by the end of this month, Governor Gboyega Oyetola would honour some teachers as part of the state government productivity day where different items would be given to some selected teachers who have performed excellently well in their responsibility as it was done last year.

The pre-primary education is taken place in selected elementary schools at the moment across all local governments in the state while the government is making an effort to equip more in order to key into the policy.