The Ondo State Government has placed a ban on the distribution of educational materials in public schools by individuals and Non-Governmental Organisations, especially for political motives across the state.
The government said the order came following a recent incident in one of the primary schools in the state where somebody distributed free exercise books to pupils allegedly with ulterior motives.
The Executive Chairman of Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr Victor Olabimtan, gave the order in Akure, the state capital, on Monday, at the inauguration of two blocks of four classrooms.
Olabimtan stated that “the state government could not fold its arms and allowed unscrupulous people to take advantage of the kids in our public schools by indoctrinating, inculcating and implanting in their plain minds wrong values and ethos that are strange to our cherished value system and ways of lives.”
He said there was a need to nip this in the bud and safeguard the psychomotor ability of the pupils for constructive engagements.
To this end, the SUBEB boss directed all headteachers across the state to disallow anybody or organization from distributing any instructional materials be it notebooks, biros, rulers or erasers in schools without the written authority of the board.
He said,
“From now on anybody or organization wishing to donate or distribute instructional materials to pupils in any public primary school in the state must write to seek the board permission before embarking on such exercise which must be done under a new process.
“Having obtained the formal approval, which must be rooted through the Education Secretary in the Local Government, the donor must hand over the materials to be distributed to the headteachers in the presence of representatives of the pupils preferably the head boy and the head girl who will, in turn, distribute the materials to the pupils.
“This procedure is to prevent the donors especially those with ulterior motives from having direct access and contacts with our young minds in order not to pollute them because they are the future.”
While appealing to the school administrators to be on their guard because political time is a perilous time, Olabimtan called on politicians to leave the little children out of their antics to win votes because the pupils were not of voting age.
He also enjoined headteachers and teachers as well as public servants to eschew partisan politics and used the occasion to also appeal to politicians to stop corrupting the young minds for their selfish ambitions.
