Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State stressed the need for comprehensive education that includes Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enable students to compete in the global arena.
He said this in Ijebu-Ode on Friday when he inaugurated the multi-million naira ICT Complex/Information and Communication Technology Cafeteria to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Ijebu-Ode Grammar School.
Abiodun, reiterated the importance of ICT in today’s world, said the Center is supporting the Techhub initiative and the digital project of his administration where 5,000 fiber optic cables will be installed to provide schools, markets and public places internet facilities.
He said that the policy was designed according to the Education Management Information System, which provides a database of students working in public and private schools, adding that the Learner Identification Number (LIN) is in place to maintain relationships with students always.
“We have formulated policies aimed at providing an enabling environment for our children to learn. Some of these policies are the Ogun State Education Management Information System that provides a database on the performance of students in both public and private schools. We also have the Learner’s Identification Number that enables us to keep tap of our students anywhere they are. These reforms have won so many Awards in the last three and seven months”, The governor noted.
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He opined that Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, in the last 110 years, has been an incubation centre where prominent professionals have been produced for the council area, State and the country as a whole.
Abiodun commended the president and old boys of the school for showing exemplary leadership and giving back to the school that charted the way for their prominence, urging other old students to emulate such gestures.
National President, Ijebu-Ode Grammar School Old Boys Association (JOGSOBA), Prof. Lawson Adekoya, said the project was conceived in 2014 and financed by the old boys with considerable support by the Bank of Industry, to provide a befitting centre for the study of ICT for the students.
He said the association is planning to execute other projects including a Sport Centre, calling on the State Government to assist the school by equipping the centre with computer sets.
In his opening remarks, the immediate past president of the Association, Engr. Ebenezer Osoba, said the past executive of the association, on assumption in 2014, put in place processes to reposition the school which was in comatose academically and infrastructural wise.
The representative of the Chairman, Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr. Oluwaseun Tobi, pointed out that the part funding of the project by the bank was done as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, noting that similar projects have been executed in other states of the country.
He said the 360 capacity centre was to complement the State Government efforts at revitalising the education sector by training the students on ICT, urging the management of the school to take adequate care of the edifice for the benefit of all.
