The Ekiti State government has commenced renovation of classrooms and laboratories across the 203 secondary schools in the state.
The ongoing project in the three senatorial districts is under the $25 million World Bank assisted Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme.
The Commissioner for Information, Taiwo Olatunbosun, who spoke during a media tour of the projects sites across the three senatorial districts in the state, said that the projects are part of the efforts of Governor Biodun Oyebanji to develop the education sector and provide conducive teaching and learning environment in the State.
According to him, the ongoing AGILE projects are tailored towards improving secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 20 in tandem with the ‘Human Capital Development agenda of the present administration and its vision of ‘Shared Prosperity.’
Olatunbosun said that the projects are specifically aimed at using comprehensive approaches to address constraints the girls are facing in attending or completing secondary school.
According to him, “the focus is to provide interventions aimed at keeping girls in school while providing opportunities for them to acquire critical life skills.”
including digital skills which empower them to enroll, stay and complete schooling and navigate to adulthood.
“It also supports improving existing infrastructure in secondary schools to accommodate increases in girls’ enrollment and transition into secondary schools.”
He highlighted the projects to include renovation and upgrading of classrooms blocks, laboratories, libraries, ICT rooms, perimeter fencing, procurement of school furniture as well as construction of toilets and sanitation facilities.
Olatunbosun said that the projects were already positively impacting on the teaching and learning environment in the benefitting schools as well as improving school enrolment and security.
He explained that the effort is in line with the Oyebanji’s administration policy of ensuring value for money, nothing that each of the benefitting schools have a 17-member School-based Management Committees (SBMC) made up of representatives of traditional rulers, religious leaders, parents and other stakeholders in their respective communities and the benefitting schools that manage the execution of the projects to ensure transparency and accountability.
The commissioner listed categories of intervention to include renovation and upgrading of infrastructure, procurement of furniture as well as construction of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities with separate toilets for boys and girls and boreholes.
Other areas of intervention are construction of perimeter fencing, purchase of equipment for the science anD ICT laboratories, provision of solar power system, smart boards for teaching and distribution of 910 laptops to students.
The commissioner hinted also that the government is executing similar projects under the Innovation Development, Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) in the state’s three government technical colleges at Igbara Odo, Ijero and Otun Ekiti.
In her remarks, the State Project Coordinator of AGILE, Yewande Adesua explained that the programme operates on three major components to improve infrastructures in schools, work on life skills and digital literacy and strengthening the project in order to facilitate the other components of the donor Bank.
In their separate interviews, the principles of Corpus Christi College, Ilawe Ekiti, Stephen Arogundade; Baptist High School Igede-Ekiti, Mrs Veronica Ilesanmi and Ado Community Grammar School, Richard Ogungbamigbe applauded Governor Biodun Oyebanji, for his developmental policy which had been a huge boost to the education sector in the state.
They said that the projects have not only improved the teaching and learning environments in their schools but have also changed the narratives about public schools in the state and as well improvement in the enrollment of students.
