Petrol subsidy removal: Edo Govt reduces school days

Barely days after it slashed working days for civil servants in the state to three, the Edo Government in has now directed that public schools should only open for three days in a week, starting from June 13.

Chairman, Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mrs. Ozavize Salami, who disclosed the directive in Benin after a meeting between the head of service and other government functionaries on the government’s directive on the three workdays, said Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday have been picked to for pupils and students to go to school, in a week.

Oracle Today recalls that only last Tuesday, the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki directed the reduction of working days for civil servants in the state to three, in a bid to ‘reduce the pains and ameliorate the sufferings our people are currently facing due to the current realities.’

‘The directive followed Federal Government’s removal of subsidy on imported premium motor spirit (PMS), or petrol, which came into effect, penultimate Monday, May 29, as announced by President Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural speech in Abuja.

Governor Obaseki in a personally signed statement, Tuesday, explained that his decision is informed by the need to cushion the effects of the increase in the pump price of petrol on the back of the subsidy removal, which he admitted has ‘increased astronomically leading to rise in prices of goods and services and overall cost of living.’

“The Edo State Government shares the pains of our people and wants to assure everyone that we are standing with them in these very challenging times.

“We want to reassure our people that we will do all within our powers as a subnational government to reduce the pains and ameliorate the sufferings our people are currently facing due to the current realities.

“As a proactive government, we have since taken the step to increase the minimum wage paid to workers in Edo State from the approved N30,000 to N40,000, the highest in the country today.

“We want to assure you that we will continue to pay this amount, while we hope to increase it even further, if more allocation accrues to our State from the Federal Government in view of the expected savings occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy.

“We know the hardship that has been caused by this policy which has radically increased the cost of transportation, eating deep into the wages of workers in the State. Therefore, the Edo State Government is hereby reducing the number of work days that civil and public servants will have to commute to their workplaces from five days a week to three days a week till further notice. Workers will now work from home two days every week.

“Similarly, for teachers and parents, their commuting to school will be reduced as government is working on deepening the EdoBEST@Home initiative to create more virtual classrooms, thereby reducing the cost of commuting on parents, teachers and pupils. The Edo SUBEB will provide details on this initiative in the coming days.

“To lower the rising cost of energy on our people, we will continue to work with the electricity companies in the State to improve power supply to homes and businesses.

“Similarly, fibre optic connections are being made available to help our people work remotely, thereby reducing their cost of transportation.

“While government intensifies these efforts to alleviate the burden of the fuel price increase on the people during this very challenging period, we want to call on everyone to remain calm and go about their daily businesses lawfully,” Obaseki said.

Meanwhile, according to the state’s Chairman of SUBEB, the decision would further be backed by the State Government which will provide shuttle buses running between the Government House, the State Secretariat among others to help reduce the stress of workers in the state.

Salami added that the government has identified eight routes in the city where buses would be provided to cushion the hike in transportation fares on the residents.

“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have been chosen to be the days for our children to go to school while the school will be closed for Thursday and Friday.

“Our plan for this period focuses on maximizing e-learning, ensuring the children cover the curriculum they ought to cover. They will stay for six weeks before vacation. For administrative reasons, we have chosen the first three days of the week as students will come to school.

“We have increased the learning hours for basic school across the State by one hour and two hours for junior secondary schools to achieve the school curriculum and integrated the timetable for Thursdays and Fridays into Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.”

Also speaking, the State Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa, said the reduced office workdays would not affect the productivity and efficiency of the service.

He charged heads of agencies, MDAs, permanent secretaries of various ministries to develop the work templates and ensure that what they do works for them and ensure government services are not interrupted.”