The incumbent Governor of Osun state, Rauf Aregbesola has set up a
committee of nine, to review its policy of free feeding of primary
school pupils in the state.
Punch newspaper reports that the nine-member committee which
comprises permanent secretaries in the state and a level 17 officer, may
also recommend that parents be made to pay a little levy for each child in school.
A source in the government circles claimed that labour leaders in the
state recommended the review of the free feeding policy alongside
others to save money for payment of salaries of civil servants and to
carry out developmental projects.
The Aregbesola government has for almost six months been unable to
pay workers salaries, a development it blames on dwindling allocation
from the Federal Government.
Deputy Governor Titi Laoye-Tomori had said last year that the “
school feeding meals cost government of the State of Osun N3.6bn
annually.”
In December 2014, the All Progressives Congress in the state said the
allocation accruing to the state had fallen from N3.8bn per month to
N1.3bn.
Following agitations by civil servants over the non-payment of their
salaries, Aregbesola challenged labour leaders in the state to suggest
how his administration could generate more funds to meet its
obligations.
The labour leaders consequently came up with a report containing recommendations for the review of the policies.
The report dated December 15 ,2014 and cited by The PUNCH was
signed by the Chairman of the Joint Public Service Negotiating
Councils, Bayo Adejumo; the Chairman of Trade Union Congress in the
state, Francis Adetunji; and the Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress in
the state, Saka Adesiyan.
The secretary of the JNC, R. A . Adeyemi; TUC Secretary, Kayode
Adepoju and the secretary of the NLC, G. A. Bolarinwa, also c0-signed
the report.
It was learnt that the labour leaders came up with the recommendations after interactive sessions with workers.
In the report, they recommended the introduction of Parent/Teacher
Association levy to be paid by every primary and secondary school pupil
in order to increase Internally Generated Revenue of the state.
