Education
Oyo Stops Automatic Promotion in Public Schools
By Dipo Olowookere
Automatic promotion in public schools across Oyo State has been banned by the state government. This information was revealed at a ministerial press briefing by the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela.
The Commissioner noted that there was a surgical operation going on in the education sector in the state starting with automatic promotion which he said adversely affected the standard of education not only in Oyo state but Nigeria as a whole.
He explained that the state government has introduced the ‘No Automatic Promotion” policy and started a unified examination system as well as harmonized grading for S.S 1 and 2 students in public schools in the state to improve the state’s performances in external examinations, WAEC and NECO.
He noted that the efforts of the government has started yielding fruitful results with the state coming 2nd in NECO external examination in 2016, better than 12th position of 2015, urging that the media should be wary of the reports they publish so as not to mislead the general public on the present rating of the state in external examinations.
Mr Olowofela stated that the recently introduced School Governing Boards for Public secondary schools in the state is a master stroke that is changing the schools’ system, emphasising that the paradigm has changed and the SGBs are improving the standard of education and infrastructures in Oyo State schools.
He posited that the SGB model will outlive the present administration as it is yielding positive results already, explaining “One of our SGBs put N125m to renovate their school and they are presently trying to raise N1 billion now. The SGB is a master stroke that will change education in the state forever.
“Government has also approved and initiated the process of renovating 100 schools with about N5 billion comprising of N3 billion counterpart funding and N1.9 billion which is a combination of funds generated from the students’ levies and state government’s internally generated revenue.
“We want our students to take advantage of our Oyo State Model Education System Intervention (OYOMESI) to build good character and the Ajumose Legacy Note for secondary schools to download text books from the web, while the hard copies are also available in the Ministry,” the Commissioner stressed.
Mr Olowofela said that the Education Trust Fund (ETF) inaugurated recently by Governor Abiola Ajimobi would complement the budgetary allocation at all levels by the government, adding that 5 percent of VAT to State/Local Government will go to ETF as well as 1% from IGR and 1% paid by students of private schools will go into the pool.
The Commissioner pointed out that The Technical University, Ibadan (TechU) will be self-financing, saying that the government is just midwifing the university that will develop the vocational skills of its students and promote technical education.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) has denied claims of mismanagement in disbursing student loan funds.
This development comes after the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it was investigating alleged corruption in the disbursement of the funds.
In a statement by the fund’s Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, NELFund said ICPC’s comment was taken out of context.
“These reports, which suggest misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, are entirely false, grossly irresponsible, and deeply damaging to the integrity of an institution established to deliver financial hope to millions of Nigerians,” Mr Oluwatuyi said.
“All institutional fees are paid directly to verified institutions, while upkeep allowances go into the verified bank accounts of eligible students,” she said.
“The reports circulating in the public space are based on outdated figures and previous interventions that predate our operations.”
Equally, the ICPC has clarified its earlier statement on the student loan.
The institution’s spokesman, Mr Demola Bakare, said the agency’s move to investigate the disbursement of the funds was due to claims that 51 schools were involved in illegal deductions and exploitation related to the NELFund scheme.
“The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients,” the agency’s statement partly read.
In an update, Mr Bakare clarified that: “Unintentionally, the word ‘NOT’ was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding the Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion had been established.
“We admit that this is not the case, indeed, we accept that the same part of the sentence also contradicted the whole paragraph. The paragraph ought to read: ‘The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.’
“For avoidance of doubt, the commission has only established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND. The impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage; the investigation would have to move into the receiving institutions and persons before any reasonable deductions could be made.”
It was claimed that out of the N100 billion approved for disbursement, about N71.2 billion was unaccounted for, prompting an investigation by the ICPC.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has clarified that it has not affirmed claims that about N71.2 billion of the N100 billion disbursed as student loans under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme were unaccounted for.
Recall that there were reports that no fewer than 51 tertiary institutions were implicated in illegal deductions and exploitation related to the NELFUND scheme.
The schools were accused of making unauthorized deductions ranging from N3,500 to N30,000 from each student’s institutional fees received through the loan fund.
The ICPC had commenced a probe into the matter and in a statement on Thursday, it said investigation revealed that the total money received by NELFUND as of March 19, 2024, was N203.8 billion, with N44.2 billion disbursed to 299 institutions, covering 293,178 students.
In the statement, ICPC said it “confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.”
Some hours later, after the revelations raised dust, the agency clarified that it made an error in the statement, noting that, “The paragraph ought to read The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.”
“The general public is urged to exercise patience as thorough investigations require time and ample resources,” the new statement signed by its spokesperson, Demola Bakare, said, stressing that, “Our investigations are still ongoing, and there are no indictments yet.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos, has announced that its 2025 convocation ceremony would take place on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
According to the official schedule, the convocation lecture will hold on Monday, May 5, at 11 am at the Kesington Adebutu Media Resource Centre, located within the institute’s premises.
The main convocation ceremony is slated for Tuesday, May 6, also at 11 am, and will take place at the NIJ premises.
The convocation will cover graduating students from the classes of 2022 through 2024 across its National Diploma, Higher National Diploma, and Post Graduate Diploma programmes.
Business Post gathered that students who excelled during their academic pursuits at the monotechnic would be recognised and awarded for their feats.
Graduating students are expected to receive their certificates immediately after the convocation.
The event is expected to bring together the management, academic staff, students, alumni, and dignitaries from the media and communication sectors to celebrate the achievements of the graduating students.
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