Trains 73 Schools On Livestock, Snailery, Crop Farming
The Oyo State government has reiterated its commitment to the development of sports at the primary school level, saying that its pupils will soon dominate sporting events at the national level.
The Co-ordinating Director, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, OyoSUBEB, Mr. Jacob Dairo, said this at the distribution of sporting equipment donated by the Oyo State government, in collaboration with Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, to 82 primary schools in the state, held at the board’s headquarters, on Tuesday.
Dairo said that the board is not only poised to restore primary schools’ leading position in sporting activities, but also ready to take school sports to an enviable height in Nigeria.
Revealing that benefitting schools got sporting equipment, which include: handball goalposts and net, skipping ropes, table-tennis bats and nets, handballs, badminton rackets and other equipment, distributed to schools in the three senatorial districts in the state,
Dairo, who heads the Board’s Schools Services Department, said that the board got delivery of the sporting items courtesy of Governor Seyi Makinde, adding that the essence of the occasion was to officially flag-off the distribution of the items to the various beneficiary schools in the state.
He said that the Oyo State government intends to catch them young with the facilities, adding that the items will enable pupils to participate actively in sports.
He further informed that the Oyo State government will organise a sporting competition among schools at local and zonal levels, while the overall winner will represent the state in national competitions.
Mr. Dairo therefore charged the beneficiary schools to take care of the items delivered to them, urging them to make proper use of the equipment for the purpose for which it is meant.
He also revealed that the Oyo State governor has approved the commencement of the Agricultural Education Training Programme, AETP, for 73 primary schools.
He said that the programme will train Education Secretaries, Head of Section of Schools Services of each local government, Head teachers, Agricultural Studies teachers, and School Based Management Committee, SBMC, representatives from different local governments.
He revealed that state government has approved funding of the agricultural training programme, in the 33 Local government areas of the state.
The trainees are in turn expected to train pupils on crop farming, snailery, and livestock farming.
To ensure that funds allocated for the training is judiciously used, Mr. Dairo said that a monitoring team will go round the schools.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman, Oyo State branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Comrade Raji Oladimeji, applauded the initiatives put in place by the Oyo State government for the pupils.
Oladimeji said that sporting activities, which are almost moribund in most schools, due to the topography of land in most schools, may come back to life with thc government’s initiative.
He therefore said that the development will resuscitate the almost-moribund sporting activities in most public primary schools.
Also, the Chairman, Association of Primary School Headteachers of Nigeria, AOPSHON, Oyo State branch, Comrade Adedeji Adekunle, appealed to the trainees to pay full attention to the teachings.
Applauding Governor Makinde for his unwavering support for wholesome basic education in the state, Adekunle said that saying the agricultural training programme will put basic education in the state on a leading path, among its contemporaries.
The zonal chairman, SBMC, Egbeda Local Government, Deacon Adegbite Omoniyi said that the agricultural training will encourage younger ones to participate in agriculture.
He said the SBMC and other stakeholders are committed to the new project, which will accelerate agricultural development in schools.
