EDUCATION: Osun To Appoint School Facility Managers, Orders Revival Of Guidance, Counseling

Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has directed the appointment of facility managers to manage and maintain the new schools being constructed by the state government.
He has also directed that guidance and counseling should be revived in schools in the state, by creating Department for Guidance and Counseling in all the schools, as means of assisting pupils to fulfill the state government’s vision of becoming good ambassadors of the state.
The deputy governor, Otunba (Mrs) Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, disclosed this in Osogbo on Tuesday, while declaring open, the Teachers’ Establishment and Pension Office (TEPO) Retreat for Osun Secondary School Principals, tagged: ‘Managing for Superior Performance in our Schools’ which was organised by the Excellence Management Support Services Limited.
She stressed that some selected principals in the state’s public secondary schools will be trained as property managers to manage those schools.
“It is one thing for the government to provide educational facilities and it is one thing to see that those facilities are well-managed. It is for this reason that Mr Governor directed the appointment of school managers to manage our schools.
“To ensure that we have these school managers from within our schools, we are proposing to send some selected principals on training with emphasis on school management,” she said.
The deputy governor was optimistic that the training programme, which is educationally-based, will prepare school principals to meet up with current global trends in property management.
Reacting to the increase in the spate of juvenile delinquencies being witnessed in schools across the country, Laoye-Tomori said that principals, as parents and role models, should closely monitor their pupils, deal with the situation headlong and adopt corrective measures, aimed at impacting good virtues in the pupils.
She re-emphasised the 90 per cent attendance policy for any SSS 3 pupil to be allowed to sit for the Senior School Certificate Examination.
In his welcome address, the TEPO Board Chairman, Mr. Tope Ogunleye, said the retreat was put together to refresh knowledge of school principals and update them on their awareness of issues and current trends in efficient school administration and prudent management.
Also speaking, the Managing Consultant for Excellence Management Support Services, Prince Kola Afolabi, said that the idea behind the training was to get the best out of the pupils.
The training, according to him, will set target for the principals, saying that the challenges of each of the participants would be identified and find ways of addressing the problem.
Afolabi said that part of the package of the training programme was to monitor the effect of training on the principals, teachers and their pupils.
On a quarterly basis for the next one year, he added that there would be interactive sessions with the leaders of the participants to ensure that the training has the desired effect.
OSUN DEFENDER