The NECO on Friday released the results of the Senior School Certificate Examination it conducted between June and July this year, with Ekiti State topping other states with 96.48 per cent, followed by Edo State with 96.31 per cent. Fayose attributed the success of the candidates to the “immense efforts” of his administration in education, which committed N411.7m to pay 5,130 core subject teachers. The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, on Saturday, said the pupils’ feat was an indication that efforts of his administration to reposition education in the state were already yielding results. “I recall that Mr. Fayose was the first Ekiti State governor to organise an ‘Education Summit’ in 2003 during his first tenure, the result of which was that the state ranked seventh in the country and first in the South-West then. It is, however, unfortunate that the successive administrations failed to follow the trend, hence the failures that greeted such wicked oversight,” the statement said. The statement added that part of the strategies employed by the governor upon being sworn-in for a second term in October 2014 was to introduce a special salary for teachers that handled core subjects across the state, as well as providing all the required teaching aids in all schools. But the APC, which had earlier issued a statement, attributed the feat to the sound education policy of former Governor Kayode Fayemi, “which provided incentives for good learning environment and provision of educational items that enhanced learning among the students.” The Ekiti State APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement on Saturday, stated that Fayemi while in office organised an education summit to develop a roadmap for quality education, which he implemented to the letter. “The foundation laid by the administration created environment for learning as never before, resulting in the latest incredible performance by the students. The current success did not happen overnight. It was the result of long-term planning by Fayemi between 2011 and 2014. “Fayemi gave each pupil a laptop that exposed them to study online and eradicated ‘miracle centres’ while providing incentive for teachers, including renovation of schools to enhance good learning environment, and also approved special allowances for core subjects and rural postings for teachers. Fayemi’s giant strides in education made Ekiti one of the three states in the federation that benefitted from the World Bank’s $50m State Education Programme Investment Project,” the statement said.]]>