Cows in an Edo State classroom. |
The Oyo State
government has warned that herdsmen found shepherding cows into public
schools or converting their playground to grazing fields will be
arrested for prosecution, while the straying cattle will be seized as
exhibits.
The Commissioner
for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, gave the
warning at a press conference, in Ibadan, at the weekend against the
backdrop of reports that cows invaded some public schools in Ibadan and
other areas recently.
Although the state
had no designated grazing zones, he said that the herdsmen have been
cautioned at different meetings from straying into unauthorized places
to feed their cattle to avert conflict of interest with farmers and
property owners.
Olowofela said,
"What happened recently in Edo State has also happened in a school in
Ibadan and few other areas where cows invaded public schools. We will no
longer tolerate indiscriminate rearing of cows.
The commissioner
used the occasion to fault a statement credited to a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, in an online medium, where he was quoted to
have scored the six years of the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led
administration very low in education attainments.
He said the state
inherited a dysfunctional educational system in 2011, which encouraged
automatic promotion of students irrespective of performance, which he
attributed to the poor performance of students in external examinations.
The commissioner
stressed that the state government had since carried out series of
reforms, including stoppage of automatic promotion, introduction of
school governing board, Oyo State Model Education System Interventions
(OYOMESI), among others, which, he said, had begun to yield dividend.
On the lingering
crisis at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, the
commissioner said that the matter would be laid to rest as soon as the
ongoing forensic audit of the college's finances, staff strength and
students' population records was completed.
Frowning on what he
called the hostile and uncooperative attitude of some of the
institution's stakeholders, he used the opportunity to appeal to them to
stop denying the auditors access into the offices to forestall further
delay.
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