Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; illustrating the meaning of an English word to Pupils of St. James Anglican Primary School, Okeoniyo, during the flag-off ceremony of "Reading Parent" in Ado-Ekiti.
“Mud houses are found in small towns and villages. Such houses too are either round or rectangular in shape. The round ones have roofs with a window each but the rectangular ones have mostly old rusty roofing sheet. Modern houses in the south are of different shapes and sizes”, That was the passage read by Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi to pupils of St James’ Anglican primary School, Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday as he flagged off the maiden edition of “Reading Parent”, organised by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
The programme was designed to improve the reading skills of primary school pupils in the state Reading a comprehension passage on “Types of Houses in our Country” from page 79 of Macmillan New Primary English, Book 5, Governor Fayemi engaged the pupils of Primary 5 for 35 minutes as he asked them questions on the comprehension passage.
When the English period was over, Governor Fayemi handed out 300 copies of the New Modern English Dictionary to the pupils and advised them to look up meanings of new words from the dictionary as this will help them build a repertoire of vocabularies.
Speaking on the performance of the pupils, Governor Fayemi expressed joy that their performance shows that the education sector has improved considerably in recent time; adding that the investment of his administration in the sector has not been a waste.
He expressed confidence that the pupils would perform well in next year’s Common Entrance examination given the level of their response to the comprehension passage.
While restating the commitment of his administration to the provision of affordable and quality education, the Governor said quality education is the right of all school-age children and should not be seen as the privilege of the rich who can afford private education.
Dr. Fayemi who stated that public school education has produced more quality products asserted that education is a tool to banish poverty from the society as it brings innovation and creativity for development.
He disclosed that the reading programme will be sustained over time as Commissioners, Directors and School Principals among others would be going to schools to encourage the children and teach them the art of reading.
Rounding off the teaching session, one of the pupils, Adeyanju Ayobami , thanked the Governor for spending time with them; saying that his presence is an encouragement for them to study harder so that Government investment would not amount to wastage.
She also thanked the Governor for giving them dictionaries as a reference material whenever they come across difficult words in the course of reading; saying that the pupils would continue to do the State proud.
It would be recalled that the State produced the best Primary School in Nigeria in last year’s President-Teacher Award.
At the event was the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Kehinde Ojo, the executive Chairman of SUBEB, Professor Modupe Adelabu and parents.
Last modified: March 5, 2013
