Former students of Methodist High School, Odode-Idanre, in Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State, have reconstructed dilapidated classrooms in the school.
The project worth over #50 million was handed to the school authority with the prospect of raising another #20million for development projects including types of furniture and interactive boards for both students and teachers.
The Chairman Central Planning Committee Dr Dokun Dairo, said the gesture was to join hands with the government to develop the school, saying the government alone should not be saddled with the responsibility of maintaining education standards in the country.
Speaking during the handing over of the building projects to the school and the reunion of students of 1985 to 2022 sets, lamented the poor quality of education in the country.
Dairo, while speaking on the quality of education in the country, said “We are having a problem with maintaining the quality of education because the government alone cannot fund education.”
His words “We need other stakeholders in funding education, our government needs to come out that they don’t have enough wherewithal to fund education, especially tertiary education.
”Government should focus on primary and secondary education as well as vocational education while they allow the private sectors and private stakeholders to invest in tertiary education.
“The government needs to help us regulate quality by setting up standards for teachers’ qualities, infrastructure, and size of the school before it can be called secondary school or primary school.”
On the projects handed over to the school, the chairman said that ” the project cost over N50 million because it was done through direct labour.
He said by the estimate of the surveyor and the engineers the project would have cost about N150 million. Since it was built by direct labour, the project cost #50 million
His words “Before now a lot of our old students have been using their influence to help the school to maintain infrastructure and adding infrastructure to the school.
” One of our old students helped us facilitate a block of six classrooms and then another member of our association also helped to facilitate the tarring of the parking lot in the school as well as the. channelisation of roads.”
The Chairman of the occasion, who is the President General of Idanre Development Assembly (IDA), Chief Anthony Omolola, enjoined other well-to-do sons and daughters of the ldanre to prioritize the development of the community.
Omolola urged other old student associations to emulate the gesture and the selfless performance of those of Methodist High School, Idanre.
The traditional ruler, the Owa of Idanre Kingdom, Oba Frederick Adegunle Aroloye, Arubiefin, described the gesture of the old students as unprecedented.
Speaking through the Neren of Idanre Land, High Chief Rufus Akinnawonu the monarch, appealed to other old student associations to give back to their alma maters
A member of the association and Permanent Secretary of the Ondo State Universal Basics Education Board, Mr Akinnagbe, commended the government for its efforts in changing the face of the school for the better. He however urged the government to do more in ensuring that the facilities were provided to other schools in the state.
“The government has the role to provide good structure to our school, provide teachers and other materials that are necessary for schooling environment, and I sincerely want to commend the present government, we have six classroom blocks that were built by Ondo SUBEB a few years ago, although there is an intervention project too, the two classroom block with office built directly by JUPEB from Abuja and others in terms of provision of books and sporting equipments to our school.
“I want to encourage the state government should continue in this effort so that all these facilities can go around, not just our secondary school but also our primary schools in Ondo state. The JUPEB and SUBEB have the responsibility of providing a sound education for the first nine years that is from primary 1 to 6 and from JAS 1 to 3”
