Ekiti State paid N7.8 billion counterpart funding to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in the last three years to attract projects to its public schools, deputy governor Bisi Egbeyemi has said.

The money paid covered seven years from 2015 to 2021, Mr Egbeyemi said on Monday while inaugurating school projects in Isan Ekiti in Ifesowapo Local Council Development Area and Ewu Ekiti in Ilejemeje Local Government Area on behalf of Governor Kayode Fayemi.

“In the last 36 months, we introduced a multi-pronged approach to tackle problems militating against access to free and qualitative basic education in the state,’’ he said.

He assured that government would continue to make public schools attractive to parents and to pupils.

Mr Egbeyemi said government’s investment in education in the last three years had resulted in very encouraging enrolment in public primary and secondary schools.

He explained that enrolment in public primary schools which stood at 106, 271 at the inception of the administration in 2018 increased to 241,982 in 2021.

In public secondary schools, enrolment rose from 84,146 in 2018 to 109,140 in 2021, he added.

Mr Egbeyemi said that enrolment in technical schools rose from 700 in 2018 to 2,021 in 2021 following the overhaul and provision of state-of-science equipment to boost vocational education.

He noted that government also committed enormous resources to the training and retraining of teachers and school support administrators, with more than 15,000 of them benefiting from capacity building programmes.

The deputy governor added that more than 600 new teachers were recruited to fill available vacancies and to strengthen manpower needs of public schools in the period under review.

NAN reports that the inauguration of the renovated blocks of classrooms was part of activities to mark Governor Fayemi’s third year in office.

Earlier, the Commissioner in charge of Projects Management at the State’s Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Kayode Adeoye, expressed delight at the government’s strides in the education sector in the last three years.

He said the state government had demonstrated a strong commitment to finding lasting solutions to various problems plaguing the education sector.

Mr Adeoye represented SUBEB Chairman, Femi Akinwumi, at the occasion.

He urged parents and guardians to send their children to public schools to ensure they benefitted from the investments being ploughed into the sector.

Mr Adeoye said UBEC/SUBEB collaboration in Ekiti State had resulted in the construction of 120 blocks of new classrooms, 208 blocks of water system VIP toilets, over 215 perimeter fences.

Others are drilling more than 86 motorised boreholes in schools, renovating 423 blocks of classrooms and more than 20,000 units of school furniture.

“In May this year, the state government initiated another round of 400 UBEC/SUBEB projects.

“These projects are at various stages of completion.

“No fewer than five primary schools and five model colleges have been established in the state by the Fayemi led-administration.

“Efforts are in top gear to construct another three model colleges as part of efforts to improve access to quality education,’’ Mr Adeoye said.