ABEOKUTA – In a bid to ensure accessible and qualitative education for children, in line with Nigeria curriculum, the Ogun State Government has said it will not allow any school to jettison the curriculum, as long as they operate within the country.
Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu dropped this hint, recently during the quality control monitoring exercise to private schools in Obafemi Owode and Ewekoro Local Government Areas (LGA) of the State, noting that “any school running other curriculum at the detriment of the Nigeria curriculum will be sanctioned”.
Arigbabu, according to his Press Officers, Mrs. Damilola Jacob and Mr. Ayoola Obadimu, explained that schools that run foreign curriculum were not helping the education sector of the nation, urging them to work together with the government saying, “if there is anything wrong with Nigeria curriculum, we will continue to work on it, we won’t allow you abandon your own curriculum and start running other countries’ curriculum within yours. You can blend the best practices of other countries with yours and teach your students”, he explained.
The Commissioner said the reason for the exercise was to go round on partial inspection to schools seeking approval to start operations, assuring that they would be given full approval after more inspection, to ascertain their continued level of compliance.
“For any school to run, they must get approval. Approval is not just a rubber stamp. It’s something you go out and see whether they have all the facilities that will make what they call a school. Apart from that, you want to be sure that after giving the approval, they still keep maintaining them”, Arigbabu stated.
Responding, the Proprietor of Lyceum Montessori and College, Mr. Yinka Ola-Williams applauded the Commissioner for visiting schools before giving approval, saying the exercise was needed to keep schools vigilant and be of good practices.