SUBEB Raises Concern Over Conversation of School Open Lands to Century By Churches
The Oyo State Government has raised concerns over siting of burial grounds on open lands beside public schools.
It appealed to the leadership of churches that share a boundary with schools especially St. Paul’s Primary School, Odo ona, Ibadan to consider the future of pupils, and stop leasing the school’s open land as burial sites.
Recall that, the Oyo state government in September 2023 issued a directive against the erection of structures on open spaces within schools in the state, describing it as illegal.
Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Nureni Aderemi Adeniran during a monitoring exercise of resumption in the State, noted that the church, apart from encroaching on the available space, built graves close to classrooms.
The Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board dispatched teams across basic schools to monitor the resumption of students for the second term.
Adeniran said that, beyond the space left for the school, the presence of the cemetery in a school premises is an issue the Board cannot live with.
“it is unfair that the siting of the school and its pupils did not matter to the church, making the school and the burial site share a very close boundary”.
In one of the classrooms, a look through the window by the pupils would mean a look into the world of the dead because of the close proximity”, Adeniran lamented.
For a school that has a functional cemetery as its neighbour, that means witnessing burial rites has become a part of the learning process for the pupils”.
Dr. Adeniran therefore instructed the Education Secretary, Ibadan South-West, Mrs. Morenike Adeniran and other Local Government Universal Basic Education Authority staff members to meet with the Vicar of the church.
