Date: 2016-08-12

Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has initiated steps towards the review of pupil exchange programme in the state.

Ahmed had made a presentation to the Northern Governors on the review of the programme. The governor, who was represented by the Kwara State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Musa Yeketi, spoke during a reception dinner and award night of the Old Boys Association of Government Secondary School, Ilorin, on Wednesday.

Yeketi said, "On the relocation of exchange pupils, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed is thinking of stopping the exchange programme because he is already reviewing it. He is already presenting a paper before northern governors to review it. "Whether it happens or not, we are working on how to relocate them to other unity schools in the state."

The exchange programme, Punch correspondent learnt, is organised by the 19 northern states where some pupils of the region are interchanged to attend secondary schools in another state within the region other than their states of origin, as a way of promoting unity and integration in the region.

But complaints of abuse have, of recent, trailed the programme. Yeketi also said that the state government was desirous of partnering with groups and individuals to upgrade infrastructure as well as teaching and learning in schools to boost the standards of education in the state.

The National President of G.S.S. Ilorin Old Boys Association, Mr. Yusuf Sagaya, in his address, said the exchange programme remained a challenge for the association as well as the school authority, because, according to him, the exchange pupils have become major threats to the developmental projects in the school. He alleged that the pupils had constituted themselves into a menace, as many of them did not pass entrance examinations.

He stated that the Old Boys would continue to invest in the rehabilitation of structures and advancement of education in the school. Sagaya said, "The exchange pupils were brought in on quota basis. We hereby appeal strongly to Kwara State Government to please relocate them from G.S.S Ilorin. We have had our own fair share of this calamity."