The Osun State Chairman of Educational Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, Chief Isiaka Ayodele Owoade has made a positive difference to change the face of education in the state since he came on board in August 2016.
In his recent interview with SOJ Worldwide (www.sojworld.com) he talked more about how he and his team are enforcing discipline in the state, “We also have morality (discipline) enforcement included in our mandate, we ensure pupils attend school, not wandering about the streets. A special scheme, Education Marshals was launched in May 2017 with the mandate to clear our streets of loitering students with a view to eradicating truancy.
We are also concerned about discipline of teachers, that they conduct themselves in the best way possible and are good role models for the pupils. That they keep all the required records, and attend classes regularly and punctually. We do all of these so that Osun pupils get an education that is of the highest standards possible.
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On the impact made to revamp educational sector, Dr. Owoade said, “One year is too short to measure our impact. The state has recorded substantial improvement in the performance of our students in WAEC results since the Aregbesola administration came in 2010. We met the result at 21%, 2016 results was 46.7% and 2017 was 44.6%. This improvement in performance can be attributed to the various interventions in education by way of improved infrastructure, regular training and motivation of teachers and measures to stem indiscipline. Learning and teaching outcomes have vastly improved.
In its one year of existence, the Quality Assurance agency has focussed on measures to ensure long-term stability and productivity in the education sector. We are gradually changing attitudes, changing the way Principals and teachers do things. It will take some time before the impact begins to reflect. We are taking a number of initiatives which in the long run we believe will impact positively.
About the unruly behaviours of students, Dr. Owoade has this to say, “Let me give you a scenario, there is this Yoruba adage, ‘’a calabash is lost and you said you have a mark on it, isn’t it only when you find the calabash you begin to talk of the mark on it?’’
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The same thing, let us say you met a particular student committing an offence, if you catch him, regardless of the colour or type of uniform he/she is wearing, he/she will face the appropriate punishment.
However, if an offending student runs away, the uniform (common or unique) is of no help in bringing him to book. If you catch a student, the student himself will say which school he belongs and you can hand him over to the school authority.
He went further, “All the policies of the administration were thoughtfully conceived and implemented. Critics are often ill-informed or politically-motivated. We wanted to industrialise the state and one quick way is same uniform. And since Omoluabi Garments was established in the state, I understand that they now sew army uniform which is more business coming into the state. It was a well thought out policy to the state in the long run.â€
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