By Jeleel Olawale, Osun

The Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke has announced the creation of a partnership board between government and alumni associations at all levels of education in the state as part of sustained effort of his administration to reposition education and improve standards, saying non-governmental groups are critical partners in the development of schools.

Governor Adeleke made the disclosure when he hosted a delegation of the Ilesa Grammar School Old Students Association in his office on Tuesday, noting that the board which will be launched by mid-March will complement his administration’s effort at complete rehabilitation of schools in Osun state.

The Governor commended the Ilesa Grammar School Old Students Association for their sustained contributions to their alma mata, emphasising the importance of support from private sources as “the government has limited funding capacity, non-governmental groups become a critical partner in school development.”

Speaking further, Governor Adeleke noted that “It is on this note that I want to use this opportunity to announce the creation of a standing Government-Alumni Partnership Board at all levels of our education system.”

“The board will exist at local and state levels with focus on harnessing developmental support from governmental and non-governmental sources for the development of our schools.

“I further direct the Ministry of Education to work out the modalities for the creation and operations of the Board within the next one month. The board is to be publicly unveiled by mid-March.

“We must capitalise on the rich antecedents of our alumni associations to develop our education system. The Partnership Board, when in place, will focus on project development, learning equipment, training support and welfare issues for the school community.

“I urge this delegation to take the message to other alumni associations across the state.”

Speaking earlier, the National Vice Chairman, Ilesa Grammar School Old Students Association, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, congratulated Governor Adeleke for the successes he has recorded in the areas of infrastructure, economy and human development, saying that “truly the light shines and darkness cannot comprehend it.”

Dr. Bolorunduro said the purpose of the visit of the body was to intimate the Governor of efforts to reset Ilesa Grammar School to produce luminaries as it was in the past, detailing interventions by various set of the alumni of the school in the last three years to reconstruct and renew buildings “that had been run down due to abandonment and previous relocation of students away from our school.”

“We have had serious interventions by old students to return the Omoluabi ethos that binds us together, through various interventions since the school’s name was returned and premises returned for the objective of producing giants.

“In the last four years, we have had interventions, about 90 in number. We hereby submit the list to you Sir. Amount spent is over 1 billion Naira with close to 500 million Naira spent on physical infrastructures, directly by the individual class sets.

“When we come around, we pay the educational development levy of our students, which can be codified properly to support our students and the government in a responsible way that will also help the running of the school.”

“We are set to spend another N1 billion to further recover our school over the next three to four through direct project sponsorship by old students/class sets and central endowment fund support. Our pipeline of projects based on the needs of the school and what we need to do in the next four years will be unveiled on Saturday, 10th February which is the Grand Finale of this ceremony.”