Ondo govt bans educational material distribution in public schools

The Ondo State Government has made it illegal for individuals and non-governmental organizations to provide instructional materials in public schools, especially for political reasons.

The government claimed that the directive followed a recent instance in which someone allegedly provided free exercise books to students with ulterior motivations in one of the state's primary schools.

At the opening of two blocks of four classrooms each constructed by the Oke Agbe Akoko Progressive Union, United States of America, and some old students association of St. George's Anglican Primary School Oke-Agbe Akoko in Akoko North-West Local Government Area of the state, Mr. Victor Olabimtan, the executive chairman of the Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board, gave the order on Monday in Akure, the state capital.

In Olabimtan's words, "scrupulous people are taking advantage of the children 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 life," the state government could not simply fold its arms and permit this.

He claimed that this needed to be stopped in its tracks in order to protect the students' psychomotor capacity for positive interactions. In order to do this, the head of SUBEB instructed all headteachers in the state to forbid anyone or any organization from distributing any educational supplies—including notebooks, pens, rulers, and erasers—in schools without the written consent of the board.

He said, “From now on anybody or organisation 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.”

Olabimtan urged politicians to keep little kids out of their stunts to win votes because the students were not of voting age. He also urged school administrators to be on their guard because politics is a dangerous time.

He also urged politicians to cease poisoning the young minds for their own ends and urged headteachers, teachers, and other public officials to abstain from partisan politics.

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