From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Osun State Government has declared that the mega schools built by the past administration contributed immensely to the out-of-school children in the state.
The Commissioner for Education, Dipo Eluwole, who spoke at the 2025 World Day Against Child Labour, maintained that it is impossible to maintain the mega schools inherited by the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
He, however, disclosed plans by the present government to correct the mistakes of the past, assuring that the narrative is already changing.
He said, “The past government made terrible mistakes; they continued building mega schools and merging the schools together. Those mega schools of that time are giving us problems now. It is impossible to maintain those schools; even to maintain only one of them, the money we can use is enough to take care of schools in a local government area.
“The mega school in Ayedaade is almost collapsing. We sent people there; when they came back, they gave the government a bill of N480 million for renovation. All these, our small classrooms of three, we can use N12 million for renovation. You can imagine how many classrooms that type of money can save. It is a problem for us. This is what contributed to out-of-school children in Osun State.
“When our forefathers started free education, they built schools in every rural area. The schools were near the children, so you didn’t need to travel before you got to your school. But when they merged schools together, students from Owode were asked to come to Fakunle at the stadium. So, this discouraged the parents, and they made their children stay at home. This is why Osun was the home of out-of-school children.
“We have developed several initiatives to encourage school enrolment; last year we had an additional 11,000 new enrolments. So, now, it is another narrative. Osun is no longer the home of out-of-school children,” Eluwole said.
He disclosed that four children from Osun who represented Nigeria in Malaysia in an international debate came first, saying that the state has moved to number seven from 32 it used to be in WAEC ranking.
“In the past, during the past administrations, what we had in our schools was hooliganism, vandalism, rape, and cultism, but now, when we came into power, we made sure we put security in the schools, and our environment is conducive to achieve what we achieved,” Eluwole said.
