By Edith Tsokar
Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State says the deployment of shuttle buses and boats by his administration has reduced the number of out-of-school children in the state.
Aiyedatiwa disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists on the sidelines of the 2026 World Teachers’ Day celebration on Monday in Abuja.
He said the transport intervention was targeted particularly at children in riverine communities who faced difficulties accessing schools.
“We have intervened in different areas like providing shuttle buses, and providing boats in the riverine area, so that has definitely reduced out-of-school pupils.
“We fuel the buses, we fuel the boats, so that they can come to school in the morning and go back to their houses. That is a major intervention for us,” he said.
The governor said the state government was also renovating classrooms and constructing additional ones to provide more spaces for pupils and improve the learning environment.
He added that his administration had paid the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) fees for final-year students in public schools.
Aiyedatiwa said the government had also taken steps to improve teachers’ welfare, including the payment of outstanding gratuities owed to some retired teachers.
“Those who have retired and were owed many years as far back as 10–15 years, we are defraying the gratuity, so that those who are still serving can be rest assured that their future is secured.
“These are some of the things we are doing,” he said.
The governor, a former teacher, said his experience in the classroom had continued to shape his administration’s approach to education and governance.
Aiyedatiwa, who received a Special Recognition Award at the 2026 President’s Teachers’ and Schools Excellence Awards, dedicated the honour to teachers in Ondo.
He said the award was a recognition of the dedication and sacrifices of teachers across the state.
“Having been a teacher before, I know the classroom. I know the responsibility it entails: standing before young minds and trying to make knowledge meaningful to them.
“That experience has remained an important part of my understanding of governance,” he said.
Aiyedatiwa recalled that he deliberately returned to the public school classroom in March 2025 to teach, describing the experience as a reminder of the importance of the teaching profession.
He said his administration recruited more than 2,100 teachers into public primary and secondary schools in 2025 to address manpower shortages and improve instructional delivery.
According to him, the state is also investing in continuous teacher training, including digital literacy, modern teaching methods, climate-smart instructional approaches and quality assurance.
The governor said N3.1 billion was spent in 2025 to construct 43 classroom blocks, while 75 basic and secondary schools, including all technical colleges in the state, were renovated.
He said 8,500 units of student furniture and 1,200 units of teachers’ furniture were also procured and distributed, while learning materials worth more than N150 million were provided across the three senatorial districts.
Aiyedatiwa said the state government had also committed N633.9 million in 2026 to pay WAEC registration fees for 23,048 students, in addition to sponsoring candidates sitting the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) examinations.
He said the government released N350 million in 2025 and N400 million in 2026 for bursaries and scholarships, while N286.7 million was disbursed by Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) to 4,837 students.
On digital education, Aiyedatiwa said the state was partnering with EIDU, an AI-powered platform, to deploy artificial intelligence-powered learning tools, smartphones and structured literacy programmes in public schools.
He added that digitally trained teachers were being provided with laptops as part of preparations to introduce robotics and artificial intelligence into the state’s curriculum.
The governor said the state also planned to establish a College of Nursing at Igbokoda and a College of Education at Aboto, alongside technical skills programmes through the O’datiwa Skills Development Enterprise Centres.
He said education remained a priority in Ondo State and called on stakeholders to protect the dignity and professional status of teachers.(NAN)
Edited by Funmilayo Adeyemi
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