GBENRO ADESINA/IBADAN
Workers in Oyo State on Wednesday disrupted a stakeholders’ meeting called by the state government to explain its new policy of involving the private sector in the management of public schools.
The meeting aimed at clarifying issues regarding the processes to be adopted by government to handover public secondary schools to private sector was abruptly terminated when the workers stormed Western Hall, Agodi State secretariat venue of the meeting.
Efforts to explain the initiative and its benefits to the education by government delegates led by Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Ismael Olalekan Alli were rebuffed by the workers.
The workers eventually booed out the government’s delegate which also include the Chief of Staff to the governor and two other special assistants to the governor.
The workers under the aegis of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT led by their chairmen, Comrade Waheed Olojede, and Comrade Niyi Akano respectively, were joined by other solidarity groups like Child Protection Network, Oyo state chapter and Coalition for the Protection of Children Right to protest against the new education policy of Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led government.
Notable Nigerians who participated in the protest were: human rights activist, Comrade Femi Aborisade, Chairman Joint Action Front, Dr. Ademola Aremu, former chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Ibadan chapter, Prof. Olusegun Ajiboye, and UI Director, Centre for Human Resources Development, Prof. Ayo Hameed.
The workers carried placards with various inscriptions expressing their disapproval of the privatisation of secondary schools in the state
Among the inscriptions on the placards were: “Commercialisation of public school in Oyo state is against Oyo state Child Right Law 2006”, “NUT opposes privatisation of secondary school education in Oyo state”, “School buyers beware”, “Privatisation of education in the 21st century is barbaric”, and “No to privatisation of schools”.
It will be recalled that last week, Oyo State Government through an advertisement requested expression of interest in the public/private partnership ownership of secondary schools in the state directing that interested person and organizations should pay the sum of N250,000 to any bank in the country using revenue code 4030018.
Speaking, Olojede said that the proposed sale of the public schools is barbaric stressing that the decision is anti-people.
According to him, “The advertorial attracted the attention of the Labour congress having considered the government attempt of sales of schools as very barbaric in the 21st century. The world over governments of nations has held education in a very high esteem and of course UNESCO described it as a matter of compulsion for all nations of the world to provide education for citizenry. The universal basic education law signed by President Obasanjo in 2003 also made it mandatory for government to provide education for the citizenry. The law also went ahead to stipulate penalty for parents that fails to send their wards to school, surprisingly the Oyo state government woke up on the wrong side of its bed last week Wednesday to put education for sale in Oyo state. Labour is more concerned and we are saying no to sale of our schools. You will agree with me that the law of Nigeria still allow education to be on both the exclusive and concurrent list and it allows individuals, organisations to establish private schools”.
He added, “If that law is still in force, why is the government selling the public schools? And one good thing is that we may have to go back and remind the government to go back and read the historical survey of the reasons why the schools were taken over by the government in the first place. Do not also forget that the private schools that we have around charge exorbitant fees which the common man, masses and even Oyo state workers cannot afford, and they could not afford this and they have taken decisions to send their wards to public schools, public schools that are maintained by their own money through taxes. The government now says they are selling such schools to private individuals and that is why labour have decided to come to the centre stage of this struggle because we don’t want the government of Oyo state to send us back into the woods of the old. Those dark ages have gone forever. Let no government return us to that age. You will agree with me that where you play with education you are only inviting ignorance and ignorance will give birth to poverty and hunger”.
Also, Comrade Akano stated that the union seeks to use the protest to express her displeasure with the decision of the government to sell the public schools saying, “We are here to render our grievances with the policy of the government by way of trying to privatise the public secondary schools in Oyo state. We have never seen any invitation from the government for a roundtable before the decision was made, we just saw the advertorial on the pages of newspapers and since we are not carried along we don’t know what is happening. When the government wanted to introduce the fee of N1000 for PTA fund we were carried along and we looked at the situation and the issue was approved. We all went to public schools and if we should say there is no more public schools in Oyo state that means we are depriving many children in having secondary school education which is very dangerous for our community state and the nation. We don’t want any public school to be sold in the state”.
Prof. Hameed said he could deduce from the government advertorial that the government is about to sell off public schools stressing, such is a way of taking education totally away from the poor and less privileged in the society.
He urged the government to think of ingenious way to raise funds, if funds to run the schools is the problem.