The Ondo State Government has announced a ban on graduation ceremonies for nursery, primary, and junior secondary school pupils across the state.
This decision, revealed by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, is part of broader efforts to reform and sanitize the state’s education sector.
Speaking to proprietors of private schools across the 18 local government areas in Akure, Prof. Ajibefun outlined several new policies, including; ban on elaborate graduation ceremonies for nursery and JSS classes, Mandatory re-accreditation of all private schools for quality control, crackdown on unregistered schools, with a six-month grace period for registration, review of school approval conditions to simplify the process and raise standards, ban on school excursions without prior approval, citing security concerns, restriction on compulsory extra lessons outside regular school hours, prohibition of forced textbook purchases, encouraging families to reuse books among siblings and ongoing digitization of schools, aiming to move all public students to a digital learning platform.
Prof. Ajibefun emphasized that education is a serious responsibility and warned that unapproved schools would be considered illegal businesses.
“We are taking deliberate steps to reposition our education system,” he stated, urging private school owners to align with the government’s standards and reforms.
