News Obiaks News

The Ondo State Government will begin the implementation of its data collation initiative, the smart card, otherwise known as Kaadi Igbeayo in schools as pupils and students resume for a new session next week. The government insisted that no student should ever resume without the card as this will fast track the data collation process. The government intend to have a better understanding of the number of people actually residing in the state as well as their employment status and other related information. Success of this process will make ondo state the only state with a more reliable residents data. Such data collection opens the door to better government planning as well as bring more development to the state and make the lives of the residents better.

As part of its strategy to ensure that residents comply with government’s directive to obtain the residency card, school authorities in the state have been ordered to request students to present photocopies of their parents’ card on resumption at school failure of which they would be sent back home.

To this end, a meeting has been held with heads of primary and secondary schools in the state instructing them to collect photocopies of the Residency Cards of the parents of their pupils and students as they resume for a new session. All school heads and authorities are posited to comply with this new directives from then state government as the pupils and students prepare to resume.

Consequently, all parents and guardians who are yet to collect their cards have been advised to do so before the resumption of schools, since their wards may not be allowed to resume at school if they fail to do so.

The state Commissioner for Information, Hon. Kayode Akinmade while speaking with newsmen yesterday said already, a meeting has been held with members of the state chapter of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) on the relevance of the cards in the task of revamping the education sector in the state. He said the exercise would therefore be conducted successfully in both public and private primary and secondary schools across the state.

The Commissioner said the meeting, which was followed up by a sensitization and enlightenment programme, was mainly to sensitise them on the relevance of the card which is in fulfilment of Governor Mimiko’s promise during his inauguration in 2009 when he promised efficient service delivery to the people of the state by using accurate data of every resident of the state.

He mentioned that although smart card technology has been deployed by several governments for specific purposes, to date, there has been no successful multipurpose smart card like the cards and it is only designed for better service delivery to the residents.

While enumerating its importance, he said it serves as an interface in all transactions between the government and residents, allows all residents equal access to government’s social and welfare services, and allows government to monitor the distribution of such services even in the remotest parts of the state among others.