Education committee of the Ogun State House of Assembly has urged the Ministry of Education to redouble its effort at ensuring effective assessment/supervision of public schools by zonal education officers across the state.

The committee, led by its chairman, Ademuyiwa Adeyemi, threw the challenge during the ongoing second quarter budget performance assessment of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) at the assembly complex, Abeokuta.

The lawmakers explained that it had become necessary for the zonal officers, especially those in the rural areas, to always provide accurate and up-to-date information about all the schools under their respective jurisdictions to the supervising ministry.

They noted that this would allow for the formulation of appropriate plans for addressing the needs of the schools.

Responding, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Abayomi Arigbabu, told the lawmakers that his ministry had just launched the State Education Revitalisation Agenda (OGSERA).

Mr Arigbabu described OGSERA as an online real-time database platform providing details of all public primary and secondary school pupils, including electronic dossier and online attendance, for efficiency and transparency.

He added that the launch of the online platform, which gave a distinct identification number to all pupils/students, had earned Ogun accolades in the comity of states, saying that some states were planning to understudy the scheme.

Speaking on the peculiarities of the scheme, the commissioner said new entrants and students seeking transfer into government-owned primary/secondary schools would be issued new identification numbers.

According to him, this will also checkmate illegal registration of students for terminal classes and be used to qualify them for examinations, including WAEC.

In another development, the lawmakers have called on the management team of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to ensure strict adherence to accounting procedures, thereby achieving proper classification of revenue and expenditures in its budget reports. 

(NAN)